'/ 


.' 


^f       •-"     f 


( 


WHAT  MIGHT 


HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 


FRANK  R.  STOCKTON, 

AUTHOE  OP   "ROUNDABOUT   RAMBLES,"    "  TlNO  A  LlNO,"    ETC..  ETC. 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS  BV  SOL  EYTINGE,  SHEPPABD,  HALLOCK,  BEARD, 
AND  OTHERS. 


b 

NEW  YORK: 
:    DODD  &  MEAD,  PUBLISHERS, 

762  BROADWAY. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1874,  by 

DODD   &   MEAD, 
in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


LAN-SI,  Lm-l.K  &  Co., 


NEWBURGH   STEREOTYPE  Co. 

108  TO  114  WOO^TKR  STREET,  N.  Y. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

HARRY  LOUDON  MAKES  UP  HIS  MIND,  g 

CHAPTER  II. 
THE  ADOPTION, 15 

CHAPTER  III. 
COMMENCING  BUSINESS,         ......     21 

CHAPTER  IV. 
KATE,  VERY  NATURALLY,  is  ANXIOUS,  .        .        .        .30 

CHAPTER   V. 
THE  TURKEY-HUNTER, 38 

CHAPTER  VI. 
TONY  STRIKES  OUT, 47 

CHAPTER  VII. 
AUNT  MATILDA'S  CHRISTMAS, 58 


2212622 


IV  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

PAGB 

A  LIVELY  TEAM, 71 

CHAPTER  IX. 

BUSINESS  IN  EAR.NF.ST  .  .  ...     85 

CHAPTER  X. 
A  MEETING  ON  THE  ROAD,  ......    97 

CHAPTER   XI. 
ROB, 103 

CHAPTER  XII. 
TONY  ON  THE  WAR-PATH 112 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
COUSIN  MARIA,     .        . 118 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
HARRY'S  GRAND  SCHEME, 124 

CHAPTER  XV. 
THE  COUNCIL, 135 

«                                   CHAPTER  XVI. 
COMPANY  BUSINESS, 143 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
PRINCIPALLY  CONCERNING  KATE, 154 


CONTENTS.  V 

CHAPTER   XVIII. 

PACK 

THE  ARRIVAL,      .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .  164 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
CONSTRUCTING  THE  LINE, 172 

CHAPTER  XX. 

AN  IMPORTANT  MEETING  OF  THE  BOARD,      .         .         .  181 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
A  LAST  RESORT, .  189 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

A  QUANDARY, 194 

* 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
CROSSING  THE  CREEK, 202 

CHAPTER   XXIV. 
THE  FIRST  BUSINESS  TELEGRAMS,         ....  210 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
PROFITS  AND  PROJECTS, 225 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
A  GRAND  PROPOSITION, 237 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 
How  SOMETHING  CAME  TO  AN  END,     ....  246 


Vi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

PAGF 

A  MEETING, 253 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 
ONCE  MORE  IN  THE  WOODS, 257 

CHAPTER  XXX. 
A  GIRL  AND  A  GUN, .264 

CHAPTER   XXXI. 
A  MAN  IN  A  BOAT, 271 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

AUNT  MATILDA'S  LETTER, 277 

I 

CHAPTER   XXXIII. 
TIME  TO  STOP,  286 


WHAT     MIGHT     HAVE     BEEN 
EXPECTED. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HARRY   LOUDON   MAKES   UP  HIS   MIND. 

ST  a  wooden  bench  under  a  great  catalpa- 
tree,  in  the  front  yard  of  a  comfortable 
country-house  in  Virginia,  sat  Harry  and  Kate 
Loudon  worrying  their  minds.  It  was  all  about 
old  Aunt  Matilda. 

Aunt  Matilda  was  no  relation  of  these  chil- 
dren. She  was  an  old  colored  woman,  who  lived 
in  a  cabin  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  their 
house,  but  they  considered  her  one  of  their 
best  friends.  Her  old  log  cabin  was  their  favor- 
ite resort,  and  many  a  fine  time  they  had  there. 
When  they  caught  some  fish,  or  Harry  shot  a 
bird  or  two,  or  when  they  could  get  some  sweet 

potatoes  or  apples  to  roast,  and  some  corn-meal 
i* 

\ 


IO      WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

for  ash-cakes,  they  would  take  their  provisions 
to  Aunt  Matilda  and  she  would  cook  them. 
Sometimes  an  ash-cake  would  be  baked  rather 
harder  than  it  was  convenient  to  bite,  and  it  had 
happened  that  a  fish  or  two  had  been  cooked 
entirely  away,  but  such  mishaps  were  not  com- 
mon. Aunt  Matilda  was  indeed  a  most  wonder- 
ful cook — and  a  cook,  too,  who  liked  to  have 
a  boy  and  a  girl  by  her  while  she  was  at  work ; 
and  who  would  tell  them  stories — as  queer  old 
stories  as  ever  were  told — while  the  things  were 
cooking.  The  stories  were  really  the  cause  of 
the  ash-cakes  and  fish  sometimes  being  forgotten. 

And  it  is  no  wonder  that  these  children  were 
troubled  in  their  minds.  They  had  just  heard 
that  Aunt  Matilda  was  to  go  to  the  alms- 
house. 

Harry  and  Kaie  were  silent.  They  had 
mourned  over  the  news,  and  Kate  had  cried. 
There  was  nothing  more  to  be  done  about  it,  so 
far  as  she  could  see. 

But  all  of  a  sudden  Harry  jumped  up.  "  I 
tell  you  what  it  is  Kate,"  he  exclaimed  ;  "  I've 
made  up  my  mind !  Aunt  Matilda  is  not  going 
to  the  alms-house.  I  will  support  her  myself!  " 


HARRY   LOUDON   MAKES   UP   HIS   MIND.       II 

"  Oh,  that  will  be  splendid  !  "  cried  Kate  ; 
'  but  you  can  never  do  it !  " 

"  Yes,  I  can,"  said  Harry.  "  There  are  ever 
so  many  ways  in  which  I  can  earn  money." 

"What  are  you  going  to  do?"  said  Kate; 
"  will  you  let  me  help  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  her  brother;  "you  may  help  if 
you  can,  but  I  don't  think  you  will  be  of  much 
use.  As  for  me,  I  shall  do  plenty  of  things ; 
I  shall  go  out  with  my  gun —  " 

"  But  there  is  nothing  to  shoot,  now  in  the 
summer-time,"  said  Kate. 

"  No,  there  isn't  much  yet,  to  be  sure,"  said 
her  brother,  "  but  before  very  long  there  will  be 
partridges  and  hares,  plenty  of  them  ;  and  father 
and  Captain  Caseby  will  buy  all  I  shoot.  And 
you  see,  until  it  is  time  for  game  I'm  going 
to  gather  sumac." 

"  Oh  !  I  can  help  you  in  that,"  cried  Kate. 

"  Yes,  I  believe  you  can,"  said  her  brother. 
"And  now,  suppose  we  go  down  and  see  Aunt 
Matilda,  and  have  a  talk  with  her  about  it." 

"  Just  wait  until  I  get  my  bonnet,"  said  Kate. 
And  she  dashed  into  the  house,  and  then,  with 
a  pink  calico  sun-bonnet  on  her  head,  she  came 


12       WHAT  MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

down  the  steps  in  two  jumps,  and  the  brother 
and  sister,  together,  hurried  through  the  woods 
to  Aunt  Matilda's  cabin. 

Harry  and  Kate  Loudon  were  well-educated 
children,  and,  in  many  respects,  knew  more  than 
most  girls  and  boys  who  were  older  than  they. 
Harry  had  been  taught  by  his  father  to  ride  and 
to  swim  and  to  shoot  as  carefully  as  his  school- 
teacher had  taught  him  to  spell  and  to  parse. 
And  he  was  not  only  taught  to  be  skillful  in 
these  outdoor  pursuits,  but  to  be  prudent,  and 
kind-hearted.  When  he  went  gunning,  he  shot 
birds  and  game  that  were  fit  for  the  table  ;  and 
when  he  rode,  he  remembered  that  his  horse  had 
feelings  as  well  as  himself.  Being  a  boy  of  good 
natural  impulses,  he  might  have  found  out  these 
things  for  himself;  but,  for  fear  that  he  might 
be  too  long  about  it,  his  father  carefully  taught 
him  that  it  was  possible  to  shoot  and  to  hunt 
and  to  ride  without  being  either  careless  or  cruel. 
It  must  not  be  supposed  that  Harry  was  so  ex- 
tremely particular  that  there  was  no  fun  in  him, 
for  he  had  discovered  that  there  is  just  as  much 
fun  in  doing  things  right  as  in  doing  them  wrong  ; 
and  as  there  was  not  a  boy  in  all  the  country 


HARRY   LOUDON   MAKES   UP   HIS   MIND.       13 

round  about  who  could  ride  or  swim  or  shoot 
so  well  as  Harry,  so  there  was  none  who  had  a 
more  generally  jolly  time  than  he. 

His  sister  Kate  was  a  sharp,  bright,  intelli- 
gent girl,  rather  inclined  to  be  wild  when  oppor- 
tunity offered ;  but  very  affectionate,  and  always 
as  ready  for  outdoor  sports  as  any  boy.  She 
could  not  shoot — at  least,  she  never  tried — and 
she  did  not  ride  much  on  horseback,  but  she 
enjoyed  fishing,  and  rambles  through  the  woods 
were  to  her  a  constant  delight.  When  anything 
was  to  be  done,  especially  if  it  was  anything 
novel,  Kate  was  always  ready  to  help.  If  any- 
body had  a  plan  on  hand,  it  was  very  hard  to 
keep  her  finger  out  of  it ;  and  if  there  were  cal- 
culations to  be  made,  it  was  all  the  better.  Kate 
had  a  find  head  for  mathematics,  and,  on  the 
whole,  she  rather  preferred  a  slate  and  pencil  to 
needles  and  spool-cotton. 

As  to  Aunt  Matilda,  there  could  be  no  doubt 
about  her  case  being  a  pretty  hard  one.  She 
was  quite  old  and  decrepit  when  the  war  set 
her  free,  and,  at  the  time  of  our  story,  she  was 
still  older  and  stiffer.  Her  former  master  had 
gone  to  the  North  to  live,  and  as  she  had  no 


14       WHAT  MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

family  to  support  her,  the  poor  old  woman  was 
compelled  to  depend  upon  the  charity  of  her 
neighbors.  For  a  time  she  managed  to  get  along 
tolerably  well,  but  it  was  soon  found  that  she 
would  suffer  if  she  depended  upon  occasional 
charity,  especially  after  she  became  unable  to  go 
after  food  or  help.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Loudon  were 
very  willing  to  give  her  what  they  could,  but 
they  had  several  poor  people  entirely  dependent 
upon  them,  and  they  found  it  impossible  to  add 
to  the  number  of  their  pensioners.  So  it  was 
finally  determined  among  the  neighbors  that 
Aunt  Matilda  would  have  to  go  to  the  alms- 
house,  which  place  was  provided  for  just  such 
poor  persons  as  she.  Neither  Harry  nor  Kate 
knew  much  about  the  alms-house,  but  they 
thought  it  must  be  some  sort  of  a  horrible  place  ; 
and,  at  any  rate,  it  was  too  hard  that  Aunt  Ma- 
tilda should  have  to  leave  her  old  home  where 
she  had  spent  so  many,  many  years. 

And  they  did  not  intend  she  should  do  it. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  ADOPTION. 

\  T  THEN  the  children  reached  Aunt  Matil- 
*  V  da's  cabin,  they  found  the  old  woman 
seated  by  a  very  small  fire,  which  was  burning 
in  one  corner  of  the  hearth. 

"  Are  you  cold,  Aunt  Matilda?  "  asked  Kate. 

"Lor*  bless  you,  no,  honey!  But  you  see 
there  wasn't  hardly  any  coals  left,  and  I  was 
tryin'  to  keep  the  fire  alive  till  somebody  would 
come  along  and  gather  me  up  some  wood." 

"Then  you  were  going  to  cook  your  break- 
fast, I  suppose,"  said  Harry. 

"  Yes,  child,  if  somebody  'ud  come  along  and 
fetch  me  something  to  eat." 

"  Haven't  you  anything  at  all  in  the  house  ?  " 
asked  Kate. 

"  Not  a  pinch  o'  meal,  nor  nothin'  else,"  said 
the  old  woman ;  "  but  I  'spected  somebody  'ud 
be  alone:." 


1 6       WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

"  Did  you  know,  Aunt  Matilda,"  said  Harry, 
"  that  they  are  going  to  send  you  to  the  alms- 
house?  " 

"  Yes  ;  I  heerd  'em  talk  about  it,"  said  Aunt 
Matilda,  shaking  her  head  ;  "  but  the  alms-house 
ain't  no  place  for  me." 

"That's  so!"  said  Kate,  quickly.  "And 
you're  not  going  there,  either  !  " 

"  No,"  said  Harry ;  "  Kate  and  I  intend  to 
take  care  of  you  for  the  rest  of  your  life." 

"  Lor',  children,  you  can't  do  it !  "  said  the 
old  woman,  looking  in  astonishment  from  one  to 
the  other  of  these  youngsters  who  proposed  to 
adopt  her. 

"Yes  ;  but  we  can,"  said  Harry.  "  Just  you 
wait  and  see." 

"  It'll  take  a  good  deal  o'  money,"  said  the 
old  woman,  who  did  not  seem  to  be  altogether 
satisfied  with  the  prospects  held  out  before  her. 
"  More'n  you  all  will  ever  be  able  to  git." 

"  How  much  money  would  be  enough  for  you 
to  live  on,  Aunt  Matilda?  "  asked  Harry. 

"  Dunno.  Takes  a  heap  o'  money  to  keep 
a  person." 

"  Well,  now,"  said  Kate,  "  let's  see  exactly 


THE  ADOPTION.  17 

how  much  it  will  take.  Have  you  a  pencil; 
Harry  ?  I  have  a  piece  of  paper  in  my  pocket,  I 
think.  Yes ;  here  it  is.  Now,  let's  set  down 
everything,  and  see  what  it  comes  to." 

So  saying,  she  sat  down  on  a  low  stool  with 
her  paper  on  her  knees,  and  her  pencil  in  her 
hand. 

"  What  shall  we  begin  with  ?  "  said  she. 

"  We'll  begin  with  corn-meal,"  said  Harry. 
"  How  much  corn-meal  do  you  eat  in  a  week, 
Aunt  Matilda?" 

"  Dunno,"  said  she,  "  'spect  about  a  couple 
o'  pecks." 

"  Oh,  Aunt  Matilda  !  "  cried  Kate,  "  our 
whole  family  wouldn't  eat  two  pecks  in  a 
week." 

"  Well,  then,  a  half-peck,"  said  she  ;  "  'pends 
a  good  deal  on  how  many  is  living  in  a  house." 

"  Yes  ;  but  we  only  mean  this  for  you,  Aunt 
Matilda.  We  don't  mean  it  for  anybody  else." 

"  Well,  then,  I  reckon  a  quarter  of  a  peck 
would  do,  for  jest  me." 

"  We  will  allow  you  a  peck,"  said  Harry, 
"  and  that  will  be  twenty-five  cents  a  week.  Set 
that  down,  Kate." 


1 8       WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

"  All  right,"  said  Kate.  And  she  set  down 
at  the  top  of  the  paper,  "  Meal,  25  cents." 

The  children  proceeded  in  this  way  to  calcu- 
late how  much  bacon,  molasses,  coffee,  and  sugar 
would  suffice  for  Aunt  Matilda's  support  ;  and 
they  found  that  the  cost,  per  week,  at  the  rates 
of  the.  country  stores,  with  which  they  were  both 
familiar,  would  be  seventy-seven  and  three- 
quarter  cents. 

"  Is  there  anything  else,  Aunt  Matilda  ? " 
asked  Kate. 

"  Nuffin  I  can  think  on,"  said  Aunt  Matilda, 
"  'cept  milk." 

"  Oh,  I  can  get  that  for  nothing,"  said  Kate. 
"  I  will  bring  it  to  you  from  home  ;  and  I  will 
bring  you  some  butter  too,  when  I  can  get  it." 

"And  I'll  pick  up  wood  for  you,"  said  Harry. 
"  I  can  gather  enough  in  the  woods  in  a  couple 
of  hours  to  last  you -for  a  week." 

"  Lor'  bless  you,  chil'en,"  said  Aunt  Matilda, 
"  I  hope  you'll  be  able  to  do  all  dat." 

Harry  stood  quiet  a  few  minutes,  reflecting. 

"  How  much  would  seventy-seven  and  three 
quarter  cents  a  week  amount  to  in  a  year,  Kate  ?  " 
said  he. 


THE  ADOPTION.  19 

Kate  rapidly  worked  out  the  problem,  and 
answered  :  "  Forty  dollars  and  forty-three  cents." 

"Lor'!  but  that's  a  heap  o'  money!"  said 
Aunt  Matilda.  "  That's  more'n  I  'spect  to  have 
all  the  rest  of  my  life." 

"  How  old  are  you,  Aunt  Matilda?"  said 
Harry. 

"  I  'spect  about  fifty,"  said  the  old  woman. 

"  Oh,  Aunt  Matilda  !  "  cried  Harry,  "you're 
certainly  more  than  fifty.  When  I  was  a  very 
little  fellow,  I  remember  that  you  were  very  old 
— at  least,  sixty  or  seventy." 

"  Well,  then,  I  'spects  I'se  about  ninety," 
said  Aunt  Matilda. 

"  But  you  can't  be  ninety !  "  said  Kate.  "  The 
Bible  says  that  seventy  years  is  the  common 
length  of  a  person's  life." 

"  Them  was  Jews,"  said  Aunt  Matilda.  "  It 
didn't  mean  no  cull'd  people.  Cull'd  people 
live  longer  than  that.  But  p'raps  a  cull'd  Jew 
wouldn't  live  very  long." 

"  Well,"  said  Harry,  "  it  makes  no  difference 
how  old  you  are.  We're  going  to  take  care  of 
you  for  the  rest  of  your  life." 

Kate  was  again  busy  with  her  paper. 


20      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

"  In  five  years,  Harry,"  she  said,  "  It  will  be 
two  hundred  and  two  dollars  and  fifteen  cents." 

"  Lor' !  "  cried  Aunt  Matilda,  "  you  chil'en 
will  nebber  git  dat." 

"  But  we  don't  have  to  get  it  all  at  once, 
Aunt  Matilda,"  said  Harry,  laughing;  "and  you 
needn't  be  afraid  that  we  can't  do  it.  Come, 
Kate,  it's  time  for  us  to  be  off." 

And  then  the  conference  broke  up.  The 
question  of  Aunt  Matilda's  future  support  was 
settled.  They  had  forgotten  clothes,  to  be  sure  ; 
but  it  is  very  difficult  to  remember  everything. 


CHAPTER   III. 

COMMENCING  BUSINESS. 

~\  \T  HEN  they  reached  home,  Harry  and  Kate 
put  together  what  little  money  they  had, 
and  found  that  they  could  buy  food  enough  to 
last  Aunt' Matilda  for  several  days.  This  Harry 
procured  and  carried  down  to  the  old  woman 
that  day.  He  also  gathered  and  piled  up  inside 
of  her  cabin  a  good  supply  of  wood.  Fortu- 
nately, there  was  a  spring  very  near  her  door,  so 
that  she  could  get  water  without  much  trouble. 

Harry  and  Kate  determined  that  they  would 
commence  business  in  earnest  the  next  morning, 
and,  as  this  was  not  the  season  for  game,  they 
determined  to  go  to  work  to  gather  sumac- 
leaves. 

Most  of  us  are  familiar  with  the  sumac-bush, 
which  grows  nearly  all  over  the  United  States. 
Of  course  we  do  not  mean  the  poisonous  swamp- 
sumac,  but  that  which  grows  along  the  fences 


22        WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

and  on  the  edges  of  the  woods.  Of  late  years 
the  leaves  of  this  bush  have  been  greatly  in 
demand  for  tanning  purposes,  and,  in  some 
States,  especially  in  Virginia,  sumac  gathering 
has  become  a  very  important  branch  of  industry, 
particularly  with  the  negroes  ;  many  of  whom, 
during  the  sumac  season,  prefer  gathering  these 
leaves  to  doing  any  other  kind  of  work.  The 
sumac-bush  is  quite  low,  and  the  leaves  are 
easily  stripped  off.  They  are  then  carefully 
dried,  and  packed  in  bags,  and  carried  to  the 
nearest  place  of  sale,  generally  a  country  store. 

The  next  morning,  Harry  and  Kate  made 
preparations  for  a  regular  expedition.  They 
were  to  take  their  dinner,  and  stay  all  day. 
Kate  was  enraptured — even  more  so,  perhaps, 
than  Harry.  Each  of  them  had  a  large  bag,  and 
Harry  carried  his  gun,  for  who  could  tell  what 
they  might  meet  with  ?  A  mink,  perhaps,  or  a 
fox,  or  even  a  beaver  !  They  had  a  long  walk, 
but  it  was  through  the  woods,  and  there  was 
always  something  to  see  in  the  woods.  In  a 
couple  of  hours,  for  they  stopped  very  often, 
they  reached  a  little  valley,  through  which  ran 
Crooked  Creek.  And  on  the  banks  of  Crooked 


COMMENCING   BUSINESS.  23 

Creek  were  plenty  of  sumac-bushes.  This  place 
was  at  some  distance  from  any  settlement,  and 
apparently  had  not  been  visited  by  sumac 
gatherers. 

"  Hurra  !  "  cried  Kate,  "  here  is  enough  to 
fill  a  thousand  bags  !  " 

Harry  leaned  his  gun  against  a  tree,  and 
hung  up  his  shot  and  powder  flasks,  and  they 
both  went  to  work  gathering  sumac.  There  was 
plenty  of  it,  but  Kate  soon  found  that  what 
they  saw  would  not  fill  a  thousand  bags.  There 
were  a  good  many  bushes,  but  they  were  small ; 
and,  when  all  the  leaves  were  stripped  off  one, 
and  squeezed  into  a  bag,  they  did  not  make  a 
very  great  show.  However,  they  did  very  well, 
and,  for  an  hour  or  so,  they  worked  on  merrily. 
Then  they  had  dinner.  Harry  built  a  fire.  He 
easily  found  dry  branches,  and  he  had  brought 
matches  and  paper  with  him.  At  a  little  dis- 
tance under  a  great  pine-tree,  Kate  selected  a 
level  place,  and  cleared  away  the  dead  leaves 
and  the  twigs,  leaving  a  smooth  table  of  dry  and 
fragrant  pine-needles.  On  this  she  spread  the 
cloth,  which  was  a  napkin.  Then  she  took  from 
the  little  basket  she  had  brought  with  her  a  cake 


24        WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN  EXPECTED. 

of  corn-meal,  several  thick  and  well-buttered 
slices  of  wheat  bread,  some  hard-boiled  eggs,  a 
little  paper  of  pepper  and  salt,  a  piece  of  cheese, 
and  some  fried  chicken.  When  this  was  spread 
out  (and  it  would  not  all  go  on  the  cloth), 
Harry  came,  and  looked  at  the  repast. 

"  What  is  there  to  cook  ?  "  said  he. 

Kate  glanced  over  her  table,  with  a  perplexed 
look  upon  her  countenance,  and  said,  "  I  don't 
believe  there  is  anything  to  cook." 

"  But  we  ought  to  cook  something,"  said 
Harry.  "  Here  is  a  splendid  fire.  What's  the 
good  of  camping  out  if  you  don't  cook  things?" 

"  But  everything  is  cooked,"  said  Kate. 

"  So  it  seems,"  said  Harry,  in  a  somewhat 
discouraged  tone.  Had  he  built  that  beautiful 
fire  for  nothing?  "  We  ought  to  have  brought 
along  something  raw,"  said  he.  "  It  is  ridiculous 
eating  a  cold  dinner  with  a  splendid  fire  like 
that." 

"  We  might  catch  some  fish,"  said  Kate  ;  "  we 
should  have  to  cookt/iem." 

"  Yes,"  said  Harry,  "  but  I  brought  no 
lines." 

So,  as  there  was  nothing   else   to   be    done, 


COMMENCING  BUSINESS.  2$ 

they  ate  their  dinner  cold,  and  when  they  had 
finished,  Kate  cleared  off  the  table  by  giving  the 
napkin  a  flirt,  and  they  were  ready  /or  work 
again.  But  first  they  went  to  look  for  a  spring, 
where  they  could  get  a  drink.  In  about  half  an 
hour  they  found  a  spring,  and  some  wild  plums, 
and  some  blackberries,  and  a  grapevine  (which 
would  surely  be  full  of  grapes  in  the  fall,  and 
was  therefore  a  vine  to  be  remembered),  and  a 
stone,  which  Kate  was  quite  certain  was  an 
Indian  arrow-head,  and  some  tracks  in  the  white 
sand,  which  must  have  been  made  by  some 
animal  or  other,  although  neither  of  them  was 
able  to  determine  exactly  what  animal. 

When  they  returned  to  the  pine-tree,  Kate 
took  up  her  bag.  Harry  followed  her  example, 
but  somewhat  slowly,  as  if  he  were  thinking  of 
something  else. 

"  I  tell  you,  Harry,"  said  Kate,  "  suppose 
you  take  your  gun  and  go  along  the  creek  and 
see  what  that  was  that  made  the  tracks.  If  it 
was  anything  with  fur  on  it,  it  would  come  to 
more  than  the  sumac.  I  will  stay  here,  and  go 
on  filling  my  bag." 

"  Well,"  said  Harry,  after  a  moment's  hesita- 

2 


26        WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

tion,  "  I  might  go  a  little  way  up  the  creek.  I 
needn't  be  gone  long.  I  would  certainly  like  to 
find  that  creature,  if  I  can." 

"  All  right,"  said  Kate  ;  "  I  think  you'll  find 
it." 

So  Harry  loaded  his  gun,  and  hurried  off  to' 
find  the  tracks  of  the  mysterious,  and  probably 
fur-covered  animal. 

Kate  worked  away  cheerfully,  singing  a  little 
song,  and  filling  her  bag  with  the  sumac-leaves. 
It  was  now  much  warmer,  and  she  began  to  find 
that  sumac  picking,  all  alone,  was  not  very  inter- 
esting, and  she  hoped  that  Harry  would  soon 
find  his  animal,  whatever  it  was.  Then,  after 
picking  a  little  longer,  she  thought  she  would 
sit  down,  and  rest  awhile.  So  she  dragged  her 
bag  to  the  pine-tree,  and  sat  down,  leaning  her 
back  against  the  tall  trunk.  She  took  her  bag 
of  sumac  in  her  arms,  and  lifted  it  up,  trying  to 
estimate  its  weight. 

"There  must  be  ten  pounds  here  !  "  she  said. 
"  No — it  don't  feel  very  heavy,  but  then  there 
are  so  many  of  the  leaves.  It  ought  to  weigh 
fifteen  pounds.  And  they  will  be  a  cent  a  pound 
if  we  take  pay  in  trade,  and  three-quarters  of  a 


COMMENCING   BUSINESS.  2/ 

cent  if  we  want  cash.     But,  of  course,  we  will 
take  things  in  trade." 

And  then  she  put  down  the  bag,  and  began 
to  calculate. 

"  Fifteen  pounds,  fifteen  cents,  and  at  seven- 
ty-seven and  three-quarter  cents  per  week,  that ' 
would  support  Aunt  Matilda  nearly  a  day  and  a 
half;  and  then,  if  Harry  has  as  much  more,  that 
will  keep  her  almost  three  days ;  and  if  we  pick 
for  two  hours  longer,  when  Harry  comes  back, 
we  may  get  ten  pounds  more  apiece,  which  will 
make  it  pretty  heavy ;  but  then  we  won't  have 
to  come  again  for  nearly  five  days;  and  if  Harry 
shoots  an  otter,  I  reckon  he  can  get  a  dollar  for 
the  skin — or  a  pair  of  gloves  of  it — kid  gloves, 
and  my  pink  dress — and  we'll  go  in  the  car- 
riage— two  horses — four  horses — a  prince  with 
a  feather — some  butterflies — "  and  Kate  was 
asleep. 

When  Kate  awoke,  she  saw  by  the  sun  that 
she  had  been  asleep  for  several  hours.  She 
sprang  to  her  feet.  "Where  is  Harry?  "she 
cried.  But  nobody  answered.  Then  she  was 
frightened,  for  he  mjght  be  lost.  But  soon  she 
reflected  that  that  was  very  ridiculous,  for  neither 


28        WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

of  them  could  be  lost  in  that  neighborhood, 
which  they  knew  so  well.  Then  she  sat  down  and 
waited,  quite  anxiously,  it  must  be  admitted. 
But  Harry  did  not  come,  and  the  sun  sank  lower. 
"^Presently  she  rose  with  an  air  of  determination. 

"  I  can't  wait  any  longer,"  she  said,  "  or  it 
will  be  dark  before  I  get  home.  Harry  has  fol- 
lowed that  thing  up  the  creek  ever  so  far,  and 
there  is  no  knowing  when  he  will  get  back,  and 
it  won't  do  for  me  to  stay  here.  I'll  go  home, 
and  leave  a  note  for  him." 

She  put  her  hand"  in  her  pocket,  and  there 
was  Harry's  pencil,  which  she  had  borrowed  in 
the  morning  and  forgot  to  return,  and  also  the 
piece  of  paper  on  which  she  had  made  her  cal- 
culation of  the  cost  of  Aunt  Matilda's  board. 
The  back  of  this  would  do  very  well  for  a  note. 
So  she  wrote  on  it : 


I  am  going  home,  for  it  is  getting  late.  I  shall  go  back 
by  the  same  road  we  came.  Your  sumac-bag  is  in  the  bushes 
between  the  tree  and  the  creek.  Bring  this  piece  of  paper  with 
you,  as  it  has  Aunt  Matilda's  expenses  on  the  outside. 

KATE. 

This  note  she  pinned  up  against  the  pine 


COMMENCING  BUSINESS.  29 

tree,  where  Harry  could  not  fail  to  see  it.  Then 
she  hid  her  brother's  sumac-bag  in  the  bushes> 
and,  shouldering  her  own  bag,  which,  by-the- 
way,  did  not  weigh  so  many  pounds  as  she 
thought  it  did,  set  out  for  home. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

KATE,  VERY  NATURALLY,  is  ANXIOUS. 

"T/"  ATE  hurried  through  the  woods,  for  she 
was  afraid  she  would  not  reach  home  until 
after  dark,  and  indeed  it  was  then  quite  like  twi- 
light in  the  shade  of  the  great  trees  around  her. 
The  road  on  which  she  was  walking  was,  how- 
ever, clear  and  open,  and  she  was  certain  she 
knew  the  way.  As  she  hastened  on,  she  could 
not  help  feeling  that  she  was  wasting  this  de- 
lightful walk  through  the  woods.  Her  old  friends 
were  around  her,  and  though  she  knew  them  all 
so  well,  she  could  not  stop  to  spend  any  time 
with  them.  There  were  the  oaks — the  black- 
oak  with  its  shining  many-pointed  leaves,  the 
white-oak  with  its  lighter  green  though  duller- 
hued  foliage,  and  the  chestnut-oak  with  its  long 
and  thickly  clustered  leaves.  Then  there  were 
the  sweet-gums,  fragrant  and  star-leaved,  and 
the  black-gum,  tough,  dark,  and  unpretending. 


KATE   IS  ANXIOUS.  31 

No  little  girl  in  the  county  knew  more  about  the 
trees  of  her  native  place  than  Kate;  for  she  had 
made  good  use  of  her  long  rides  through  the 
country  with  her  father.  Here  were  the  chin- 
capin-bushes,  like  miniature  chestnut-trees,  and 
here  were  the  beautiful  poplars.  She  knew  them 
by  their  bright  leaves,  which  looked  as  though 
they  had  been  snipped  off  at  the  top  with  a  pair 
of  scissors.  And  here,  right  in  front  of  her,  was 
Uncle  Braddock.  She  knew  him  by  his  many- 
colored  dressing-gown,  without  which  he  never 
appeared  in  public.  It  was  one  of  the  most 
curious  dressing-gowns  ever  seen,  as  Uncle  Brad- 
dock  was  one  of  the  most  curious  old  colored 
men  ever  seen.  The  gown  was  not  really  as  old 
as  its  wearer,  but  it  looked  older.  It  was  com- 
posed of  about  a  hundred  pieces  of  different 
colors  and  patterns — red,  green,  blue,  yellow,  and 
brown  ;  striped,  spotted,  plain,  and  figured  with 
flowers  and  vines.  These  pieces,  from  year  to 
year,  had  been  put  on  as  patches,  and  some  of 
them  were  quilted  on,  and  some  were  sewed,  and 
some  were  pinned.  The  gown  was  very  long 
and  came  down  to  Uncle  Braddock's  heels,  which 
were  also  very  long  and  bobbed  out  under  the 


32        WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

bottom  of  the  gown  as  if  they  were  trying  to 
kick  backward.  But  Uncle  Braddock  never 
kicked.  He  was  very  old  and  he  had  all  the 
different  kinds  of  rheumatism,  and  walked  bent 
over  nearly  at  right-angles,  supporting  himself 
by  a  long  cane  like  a  bean-pole,  which  he  grasp- 
ed in  the  middle.  There  was  probably  no  par- 
ticular reason  why  he  should  bend  over  so  very 
much,  but  he  seemed  to  like  to  walk  in  that  way. 
and  nobody  objected.  He  was  a  good  old  soul, 
and  Kate  was  delighted  to  see  him. 

"  Uncle  Braddock  !  "  she  cried. 

The  old  man  stopped  and  turned  around, 
almost  standing  up  straight  in  his  astonishment 
at  seeing  the  young  girl  alone  in  the  woods. 

"  Why,  Miss  Kate !  "  he  exclaimed,  as  she 
came  up  with  him,  "  what  in  the  world  is  you 
doin'h'yar?" 

"  I've  been  gathering  sumac,"  said  Kate,  as 
they  walked  on  together,  "  and  Harry's  gone  off, 
and  I  couldn't  wait  any  longer  and  I'm  just  as 
glad  as  I  can  be  to  see  you,  Uncle  Braddock,  for 
I  was  beginning  to  be  afraid,  because  its  getting 
dark  so  fast,  and  your  dressing-gown  looked 
prettier  to  me  than  all  the  trees  when  I  first 


KATE   IS   ANXIOUS.  33 

caught  sight  of  it.  But  I  think  you  ought  to 
have  it  washed,  Uncle  Braddock." 

"  Wash  him  !  "  said  Uncle  Braddock,  with  a 
chuckle,  as  if  the  suggestion  was  a  very  funny 
joke  ;  "  dat  wouldn't  do,  no  how.  He'd  wash 
all  to  bits,  and  the  pins  would  stick  'em  in  the 
hands.  Couldn't  wash  him,  Miss  Kate  ;  it's  too 
late  for  dat  now.  Might  have  washed  him  be- 
fore de  war,  p'raps.  We  was  stronger,  den. 
But  what  you  getherin  sumac  for,  Miss  Kate  ? 
If  you  white  folks  goes  pickin'  it  all,  there  won't 
be  none  lef  soon  fur  de  cull'ed  people,  dat's 
mighty  certain." 

"  Why,  I'm  picking  it  for  the  colored  people," 
said  Kate,  "  at  least  for  one  colored  person." 

"  Why  don't  you  let  'em  pick  it  the'rselves  ?  " 
asked  the  old  man. 

"  Because  Aunt  Matilda  can't  do  it,"  said 
Kate. 

"Is  dat  sumac  fur  Aunt  Matilda?"  said 
Uncle  Braddock. 

"  Yes,  it  is,"  said  Kate,  "  and  Harry's  been 
gathering  some,  and  we're  going  to  pick  enough 
to  get  her  all  she  wants.  Harry  and  I  intend  to 


34        WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

take  care  of  her  now.  You  know  they  were 
going  to  send  her  to  the  alms-house." 

"Well,  I  declar!  "  exclaimed  the  old  man. 
"  I  neber  did  hear  de  like  o'  dat  afore.  Why, 
you  all  isn't  done  bein'  tuk  care  of  you'selves." 
Kate  laughed,  and  explained  their  plans,  getting 
quite  enthusiastic  about  it. 

"  Lem  me  carry  dat  bag,"  said  Uncle  Brad- 
dock.  "  Oh  no  !  "  said  Kate,  "  you're  too  old  to 
be  carrying  bags." 

"  Jis  lem  me  hab  it,"  said  he  ;  "  it's  trouble 
enuf  fur  me  to  get  along,  anyway,  and  a  bag  or 
two  don't  make  no  kind  o'  difrence." 

Kate  found  herself  obliged  to  consent,  and  as 
the  bag  was  beginning  to  feel  very  heavy  for  her, 
and  as  it  didn't  seem  to  make  the  slightest  dif- 
ference, as  he  had  said,  to  Uncle  Braddock,  she 
was  very  glad  to  be  rid  of  it. 

But  when  at  last  they  reached  the  village, 
and  Uncle  Braddock  went  over  the  fields  to  his 
cabin,  Kate  ran  into  the  house,  carrying  her  bag 
with  ease,  for  she  was  excited  by  the  hope  that 
Harry  had  come  home  by  some  shorter  way, 
and  that  she  should  find  him  in  the  house. 


KATE  IS  ANXIOUS.  35 

But  there  was  no  Harry  there.  And  soon  it 
was  night,  and  yet  he  did  not  come, 
t  Matters  now  looked  serious,  and  about  nine 
o'clock  Mr.  Loudon,  with  two  of  the  neighbors, 
started  out  into  the  woods  to  look  for  Aunt 
Matilda's  young  guardian. 

Kate's  mother  was  away  on  a  visit  to  her 
relations  in  another  county,  and  so  the  little 
girl  passed  the  night  on  the  sofa  in  the  parlor, 
with  a  colored  woman  asleep  on  the  rug  before 
the  fire-place.  Kate  would  not  go  to  bed.  She 
determined  to  stay  awake  until  Harry  should 
come  home.  But  the  sofa-cushions  became 
more  and  more  pleasant,  and  very  soon  she  was 
dreaming  that  Harry  had  shot  a  giraffe,  and  had 
skinned  it,  and  had  stuffed  the  skin  full  of  sumac- 
leaves,  and  that  he  and  she  were  pulling  it 
through  the  woods,  and  that  the  legs  caught  in 
the  trees  and  they  could  not  get  it  along,  and 
then  she  woke  up.  It  was  bright  daylight. 
But  Harry  had  not  come  ! 

There  was  no  news.  Mr.  Loudon  and  his 
friends  were  still  absent.  Poor  Kate  was  in  de- 
spair, and  could  not  touch  the  breakfast,  which 
was  prepared  at  the  usual  hour. 


36        WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

About  nine  o'clock  a  company  of  negro 
sumac  gatherers  appeared  on  the  road  which 
passed  Mr.  Loudon's  house.  It  was  a  curious 
party.  On  a  rude  cart,  drawn  by  two  little  oxen, 
was  a  pile  of  bags  filled  with  sumac-leaves,  which 
were  supported  by  poles  stuck  around  the  cart 
and  bound  together  by  ropes.  On  the  top  of 
the  pile  sat  a  negro,  plying  a  long  whip  and 
shouting  to  the  oxen.  Behind  the  cart,  and  on 
each  side  of  it,  were  negroes,  men  and  women, 
carrying  hu-ge  bales  of  sumac  on  their  heads. 
Bags,  pillow-cases,  bed-ticks,  sheets  and  cover- 
lets had  been  called  into  requisition  to  hold 
the  precious  leaves.  Here  was  a  woman  with  a 
great  bundle  on  her  head,  which  sank  down  so 
as  to  almost  entirely  conceal  her  face  ;  and  near 
her  was  an  old  man  who  supported  on  his  bare 
head  a  load  that  looked  heavy  enough  for  a  horse. 
Even  little  children  carried  bundles  considerably 
larger  than  themselves,  and  all  were  laughing 
and  talking  merrily  as  they  made  their  way  to 
the  village  store  at  the  cross-roads. 

Kate  ran  eagerly  out  to  question  these 
people.  They  must  certainly  have  seen  Harry. 

The   good-natured  negroes  readily  stopped 


KATE  IS  ANXIOUS.  37 

to  talk  with  Kate.  The  ox-driver  halted  his 
team,  and  every  head-burdened  man,  woman, 
and  child  clustered  around  her,  until  it  seemed 
as  if  sumac  clouds  had  spread  between  her  and 
the  sky,  and  had  obscured  the  sun. 

But  no  one  had  seen  Harry.  In  fact,  this 
company,  with  the  accumulated  proceeds  of  a 
week's  sumac  gathering,  had  come  from  a  por- 
tion of  the  county  many  miles  from  Crooked 
Creek,  and  of  course,  they  could  bring  no  news 
to  Kate. 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE  TURKEY-HUNTER. 

TXTHEN  Harry  left  Kate,  he  quietly  walked 
by  the  side  of  Crooked  Creek,  keeping  his 
eyes  fixed  on  the  tracks  of  the  strange  animal, 
and  his  thumb  on  the  hammer  of  the  right-hand 
barrel  of  his  gun.  Before  long  the  tracks  disap- 
peared, and  disappeared,  too,  directly  in  front 
of  a  hole  in  the  bank  ;  quite  a  large  hole,  big 
enough  for  a  beaver  or  an  otter.  This  was  capi- 
tal luck !  Harry  got  down  on  his  hands  and 
knees  and  examined  the  tracks.  Sure  enough, 
the  toes  pointed  toward  the  hole.  It  must  be 
in  there  ! 

Harry  cocked  his  gun  and  sat  and  waited. 
He  was  as  still  as  a  dead  mouse.  There  was  no 
earthly  reason  why  the  creature  should  not  come 
out,  except  perhaps  that  it  might  not  want  to 
come  out.  At  any  rate,  it  could  not  know  that 
Harry  was  outside  waiting  for  it. 


THE  TURKEY-HUNTER.  39 

He  waited  a  long  time  without  ever  thinking 
how  the  day  was  passing  on  ;  and  it  began  to  be 
a  little  darkish,  just  a  little,  before  he  thought 
that  perhaps  he  had  better  go  back  to  Kate. 

But  it  might  be  just  coming  out,  and  what  a 
shame  to  move !  A  skin  that  would  bring  five 
dollars  was  surely  worth  waiting  for  a  little 
while  longer,  and  he  might  never  have  such 
another  chance.  He  certainly  had  never  had 
such  a  one  before. 

And  so  he  still  sat  and  waited,  and  pretty 
soon  he  heard  something.  But  it  was  not  in  the 
hole — not  near  him  at  all.  It  was  farther  along 
the  creek,  and  sounded  like  the  footsteps  of 
some  one  walking  stealthily. 

Harry  looked  around  quickly,  and,  about 
thirty  yards  from  him,  he  saw  a  man  with  a  gun. 
The  man  was  now  standing  still,  looking  steadily 
at  him.  At  least  Harry  thought  he  was,  but 
there  was  so  little  light  in  the  woods  by  this  time 
that  he  could  not  be  sure  about  it.  What  was 
that  man  after?  Could  he  be  watching  him? 

Harry  was  afraid  to  move.  Perhaps  the  man 
mistook  him  for  some  kind  of  an  animal.  To  be 
sure,  he  could  not  help  thinking  that  boys  were 


40        WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

Animals,  but  he  did  not  suppose  the  man  would 
want  to  shoot  a  boy,  if  he  knew  it.  But  how 
could  any  one  tell  that  Harry  was  a  boy  at  that 
distance,  and  in  that  light. 

Poor  Harry  did  not  even  dare  to  call  out. 
He  could  not  speak  without  moving  something, 
his  lips  any  way,  and  the  man  might  fire  at  the 
slightest  motion.  He  was  so  quiet  that  the 
musk-rat — it  was  a  musk-rat  that  lived  in  the 
hole — came  out  of  his  house,  and  seeing  the 
boy  so  still,  supposed  he  was  nothing  of  any  con- 
sequence, and  so  trotted  noiselessly  along  to  the 
water  and  slipped  in  for  a  swim.  Harry  never 
saw  him.  His  eyes  were  fixed  on  the  man. 

For  some  minutes  longer — they  seemed  like 
hours — he  remained  motionless.  And  then  he 
could  bear  it  no  longer. 

"  Hel-low  !  "  he  cried. 

"  Hel-low  !  "  said  the  man. 

Then  Harry  got  up  trembling  and  pale,  and 
the  man  came  toward  him. 

"  Why,  I  didn't  know  what  you  were,"  said 

> 

the  man. 

"  Tony   Kirk !  "   exclaimed    Harry.      Yes,  it 


THE  TURKEY-HUNTER.  4! 

was  Tony  Kirk,  sure  enough,  a  man  who  would 
never  shoot  a  boy — if  he  knew  it. 

"  What  are  you  doing  here,"  asked  Tony, 
"a-squattin*  in  the  dirt  at  supper-time  ?  " 

Harry  told  him  what  he  was  doing,  and  how 
he  had  been  frightened,  and  then  the  remark 
about  supper-time  made  him  think  of  his  sister. 
"  My  senses !  "  he  cried,  "  there's  Kate  !  she 
must  think  I'm  lost." 

"Kate!"  exclaimed  Tony.  "What  Kate? 
You  don't  mean  your  sister!" 

"  Yes,  I  do,"  said  Harry ;  and  away  he  ran 
down  the  shore  of  the  creek.  Tony  followed, 
and  when  he  reached  the  big  pine-tree,  there 
was  Harry  gazing  blankly  around  him. 

"  She's  gone  !  "  faltered  the  boy. 

"  I  should  think  so,"  said  Tony,  "  if  she  knew 
what  was  good  for  her.  What's  this?"  His 
quick  eyes  had  discovered  the  paper  on  the 
tree. 

Tony  pulled  the  paper  from  the  pine  trunk 
and  tried  to  read  it,  but  Harry  was  at  his  side  in 
an  instant,  and  saw  it  was  Kate's  writing.  It 
was  almost  too  dark  to  read  it,  but  he  managed, 
by  holding  it  toward  the  west,  to  make  it  out. 


42        WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

"  She's  gone  home,"  he  said,  "  and  I  must  be 
after  her ;  "  and  he  prepared  to  start. 

"  Hold  up ! "  cried  Tony ;  "  I'm  going  that 
way.  And  so  you've  been  getherin'  sumac." 
Harry  had  read  the  paper  aloud.  "  There's  no 
use  o'  leavin'  yer  bag.  Git  it  out  o'  the  bushes, 
and  come  along  with  me." 

Harry  soon  found  his  bag,  and  then  he  and 
Tony  set  out  along  the  road. 

"What  are  you  after?"  asked  Harry. 

"  Turkeys,"  said  Tony. 

Tony  Kirk  was  always  after  turkeys.  He 
was  a  wild-turkey  hunter  by  profession.  It  is 
true  there  were  seasons  of  the  year  when  he  did 
not  shoot  turkeys,  but  although  at  such  times  he 
worked  a  little  at  farming  and  fished  a  little,  he 
nearly  always  found  it  necessary  to  do  some- 
thing that  related  to  turkeys.  He  watched 
their  haunts,  he  calculated  their  increase,  he 
worked  out  problems  which  proved  to  him 
where  he  would  find  them  most  plentiful  in  the 
fall,  and  his  mind  was  seldom  free  from  the  con- 
sideration of  the  turkey  question. 

"Isn't  it  rather  early  for  turkeys?"  asked 
Harry. 


THE  TURKEY-HUNTER.  43 

"Well,  yes,"  said  Tony,  "but  I'm  tired  o' 
waitin." 

"  I'm  goin'  to  make  a  short  cut,"  continued 
Tony,  striking  out  of  the  road  into  a  narrow  path 
in  the  woods.  "  You  can  save  half  a  mile  by 
comin'  this  way." 

So  Harry  followed  him.  .  . 

"  I  don't  mind  takin'  you,"  said  Tony,  "  fur 
I  know  you  kin  keep  a  secret.  My  turkey-blind 
is  over  yander  ;  "  and  as  he  said  this  he  put  his 
hand  into  his  coat  pocket  and  pulled  out  a  hand- 
ful of  shelled  corn,  which  he  began  to  scatter 
along  the  path,  a  grain  or  two  at  a  time.  After 
ten  or  fifteen  minutes'  walking,  Tony  scattering 
corn  all  the  way,  they  came  to  a  mass  of  oak 
and  chestnut  boughs,  piled  .up  on  one  side  of 
the  path  like  a  barrier.  This  was  the  turkey- 
blind.  It  was  four  or  five  feet  high,  and  behind 
it  Tony  was  accustomed  to  sit  in  the  early  gray 
of  the  morning,  waiting  for  the  turkeys  which 
he  hoped  to  entice  that  way  by  means  of  his 
long  line  of  shelled  corn. 

"  You  see  I  build  my  blind,"  said  he  to 
Harry,  "  and  then  I  don't  come  here  till  I've 
sprinkled  my  corn  for  about  a  week,  and  got  the 


44        WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

turkeys  used  to  comin'  this  way  after  it.  Then 
I  get  back  o'  that  thar  at  night  and  wait  till  the 
airly  mornin',  when  they're  sartin  to  come  gob- 
blin'  along,  till  I  can  get  a  good  crack  at  'em." 
With  this  he  sat  down  on  a  log,  which  Harry 
could  scarcely  see,  so  dark  was  it  in  the  woods 
by  this  time. 

"  Are  you  tired  ?  "  said  Harry. 

"  No,"  answered  Tony  ;  "  I'm  goin'  to  stop 
here.  I  want  to  be  ready  fur  'em  before  it 
begins  to  be  light." 

"  But  how  am  I  to  get  home?  "  said  Harry. 

"  Oh,  jist  keep  straight  on  in  that  track.  It'll 
take  yer  straight  to  the  store,  ef  ye  don't  turn 
out  uv  it." 

"  Can't  you  come  along  and  show  me  ?  "  said 
Harry.  "  I  can't  find  the  way  through  these 
dark  woods." 

"  It's  easy  enough,"  said  Tony,  striking  a 
match  to  light  his  pipe.  "  I  could  find  my  way 
with  my  eyes  shut.  And  it  would  not  do  fur 
me  to  go.  I'll  make  too  much  noise  comin' 
back.  There's  no  knowin'  how  soon  the  turkeys 
will  begin  to  stir  about." 


THE  TURKEY-HUNTER.  45 

"  Then  you  oughtn't  to  have  brought  me 
here,"  said  Harry,  much  provoked. 

"  I  wanted  to  show  you  a  short  way  home," 
said  Tony,  puffing  away  at  his  pipe. 

Harry  answered  not  a  word,  but  set  out 
along  the  path.  In  a  minute  or  two  he  ran 
against  a  tree  ;  then  he  turned  to  the  right  and 
stumbled  over  a  root,  dropping  his  bag  and 
nearly  losing  his  hold  of  his  gun.  He  was  soon 
convinced  that  it  was  all  nonsense  to  try  to  get 
home  by  that  path,  and  he  slowly  made  his  way 
back  to  Tony. 

"  I'll  tell  ye  what  it  is,"  said  the  turkey-hunt- 
er, "  ef  you  think  you'd  hurt  yerself  findin'  yer 
way  home,  and  I  thought  you  knew  the  woods 
better  than  that,  you  might  as  well  stay  here 
with  me.  I'll  take  you  home  bright  an' airly.  You 
needn't  trouble  yerself  about  yer  sister.  -  She's 
home  long  ago.  It  must  have  been  bright  day- 
light when  she  wrote  on  that  paper,  and  she 
could  keep  the  road  easy  enough  " 

Harry  said  nothing,  but  sat  down  on  the 
other  end  of  the  log.  Tony  did  not  seem  to 
notice  his  vexation,  but  talked  to  him,  explain- 
ing the  mysteries  of  turkey-hunting  and  the 


46       WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

delight  of  spending  a  night  in  the  woods,  where 
everything  was  so  cool  and  dry  and  still. 
"  There's  no  nonsense  here,"  said  Tony.  "  Ef 
there's  any  place  where  a  feller  kin  have  peace 
and  comfert,  it's  in  the  woods,  at  night." 

By  degrees  Harry  became  interested  and  for- 
got his  annoyance.  Kate  was  certainly  safe  at 
home,  and  as  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  find  his 
way  out  of  the  depths  of  the  woods,  he  might 
as  well  be  content.  He  could  not  even  hope  to 
regain  the  road  by  the  way  they  came. 

When  Tony  had  finished  his  pipe  he  took 
Harry  behind  his  blind.  "  All  you  have  to  do," 
said  he,  "  is  jist  to  peep  over  here  and  level 
your  gun  along  that  path,  keepin'  yer  eye  fixed 
straight  in  front  of  you,  and  after  awhile  you  can 
begin  to  see  things.  Suppose  that  dark  lump 
down  yander  was  a  turkey.  Just  look  at  it  long 
enough  and  you  kin  make  it  out.  You  see  what 
I  mean,  don't  you  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Harry,  peeping  over  the  blind  ; 
"  I  see  it;  "  and  then,  with  a  sudden  jump,  he 
whispered,  "  Tony !  it's  moving."  Tony  did 
not  answer  for  a  moment,  and  then  he  hurriedly 
whispered  back,  "  That's  so  !  It  is  moving." 


CHAPTER  VI. 
TONY  STRIKES  OUT. 

r  I  ^HERE  was  no  doubt  about  it;  something 
-•-  was  moving.  There  was  a  rise  in  the 
ground  a  short  distance  in  front  of  the  turkey- 
blind,  and  a  little  patch  of  dark  sky  was  visible 
between  the  trees.  Across  this  bit  of  sky  some- 
thing dark  was  slowly  passing. 

"  Ye  kin  see  'most  anything  in  the  darkest 
night,"  whispered  Tony,  "  ef  ye  kin  only  git  the 
sky  behind  it.  But  that's  no  turkey." 

"  What  do  you  think  it  is  ?  "  said  Harry, 
softly.  "  It's  big  enough  for  a  turkey." 

"  Too  big,"  said  Tony.  "  Let's  git  after  it. 
You  slip  along  the  path,  and  I'll  go  round  ahead 
of  it.  Feel  yer  way,  and  don't  make  no  noise  if 
ye  run  agin  anything.  And  mind  this  " — and 
here  Tony  spoke  in  one  of  the  most  impressive 
of  whispers — "  don't  you  fire  till  yer  dead  certain 
what  it  is." 


48       WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

With  this  Tony  slipped  away  into  the  dark- 
ness, and  Harry,  grasping  his  gun,  set  out  to  feel 
his  way.  He  felt  his  way  along  the  path  for  a 
short  time,  and  then  he  felt  his  way  out  of  it. 
Then  he  crept  into  a  low,  soft  place,  full  of  ferns, 
and  out  of  that  he  carefully  felt  his  way  into  a 
big  bush,  where  he  knocked  off  his  hat.  When 
he  found  his  hat,  which  took  him  some  time,  he 
gradually  worked  himself  out  into  a  place  where 
the  woods  were  a  little  more  open,  and  there  he 
caught  another  glimpse  of  the  sky  just  at  the 
top  of  the  ridge.  There  was  something  dark 
against  the  sky,  and  Harry  watched  it  for  a  long 
time.  At  last,  as  it  did  not  move  at  all,  he  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  it  must  be  a  bush,  and  he 
was  entirely  correct.  For  an  hour  or  two  he 
quietly  crept  among  the  trees,  hoping  he  would 
either  find  the  thing  that  was  moving  or  get 
back  to  the  turkey-blind.  Several  times  some- 
thing that  he  was  sure  was  an  "old  har,"  as 
hares  are  often  called  in  Virginia,  rushed  out  of 
the  bushes  near  him  ;  and  once  he  heard  a  quick 
rustling  among  the  dead  leaves  that  sounded  as 
if  it  were  made  by  a  black  snake,  but  it  might  as 
well  have  been  a  Chinese  pagoda  on  wheels,  for 


TONY   STRIKES   OUT.  49 

all  he  could  see  of  it.  At  last  he  became  very 
tired,  and  sat  down  to  rest  with  his  back  against 
a  big  tree.  There  he  soon  began  to  nod,  and, 
without  the  slightest  intention  of  doing  anything 
of  the  kind,  he  went  to  sleep  just  as  soundly  as 
if  he  had  been  in  his  bed  at  home.  And  this 
was  not  at  all  surprising,  considering  the  amount 
of  walking  and  creeping  that  he  had  done  that 
day  and  night. 

When  he  awoke  it  was  daylight.  He  sprang 
to  his  feet  and  found  he  was  very  stiff  in  the 
legs,  but  that  did  not  prevent  him  from  running 
this  way  and  that  to  try  and  find  some  place  in 
the  woods  with  which  he  was  familiar.  Before 
long  he  heard  what  he  thought  was  something 
splashing  in  water,  and,  making  his  way  toward 
the  sound,  he  pushed  out  on  the  bank  of  Crook- 
ed Creek. 

The  creek  was  quite  wide  at  this  point,  and 
out  near  the  middle  of  it  he  saw  Tony's  head. 
The  turkey-hunter  was  swimming  hand-over- 
hand, "  dog-fashion,"  for  the  shore.  Behind  him 
was  a  boat,  upside-down,  which  seemed  just  on 
the  point  of  sinking  out  of  sight. 


5O       WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

"  Hel-low,  there  !  "  cried  Harry;  "  what's  the 
matter,  Tony  ?  " 

Tony  never  answered  a  word,  but  spluttered 
and  puffed,  and  struck  out  slowly  but  vigorously 
for  the  bank. 

"  Wait  a  minute,"  cried  Harry,  wildly  ex- 
cited, "  I'll  reach  you  a  pole." 

But  Tony  did  not  wait,  and  Harry  could  find 
no  pole.  When  he  turned  around  from  his  hur- 
ried search  among  the  bushes,  the  turkey-hunter 
had  found  bottom,  and  was  standing  with  his 
head  out  of  water.  But  the  bottom  was  soft  and 
muddy,  and  he  flopped  about  dolefully  when  he 
attempted  to  walk  to  the  bank.  Harry  reached 
his  gun  out  toward  him,  but  Tony,  with  a  quick 
jerk  of  his  arm,  motioned  it  away. 

"  I'd  rather  be  drownded  than  shot,"  he  splut- 
tered. "  I  don't  want  no  gun-muzzles  pinted  at 
me.  Take  a-hold  of  that  little  tree,  and  then 
reach  me  your  hand." 

Harry  seized  a  young  tree  that  grew  on  the 
very  edge  of  the  bank,  and  as  soon  as  Tony 
managed  to  flop  himself  near  enough,  Harry 
leaned  over  and  took  hold  of  his  outstretched 
hand  and  gave  him  a  jerk  forward  with  all  his 


TONY   STRIKES  OUT.  5 1 

strength.  Over  went  Tony,  splash  on  his  face 
in  the  water,  and  Harry  came  very  near  going  in 
head-foremost  on  top  of  him.  But  he  recovered 
himself,  and,  not  having  loosed  his  grip  of 
Tony's  hand,  he  succeeded,  with  a  mighty  effort, 
in  dragging  the  turkey-hunter's  head  out  of  the 
water ;  and,  after  a  desperate  struggle  with  the 
mud,  Tony  managed  to  get  on  his  feet  again, 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  he,  blowing  the  water 
out  of  his  mouth  and  shaking  his  dripping  head, 
"  but  what  I'd  'most  as  lieve  be  shot  as  ducked 
that  way.  Don't  you  jerk  so  hard  again.  Hold 
steady,  and  let  me  pull." 

Harry  took  a  still  firmer  grasp  of  the  tree 
and  "  held  steady,"  while  Tony  gradually 
worked  his  feet  through  the  sticky  mud  until 
he  reached  the  bank,  and  then  he  laboriously 
clambered  on  shore. 

"  How  did  it  happen  ?  "  said  Harry.  "  How 
did  you  get  in  the  water  ?  " 

"  Boat  upsot,"  said  Tony,  seating  himself,  all 
dripping  with  water  and  mud,  upon  the  bank. 

"  Why,  you  came  near  being  drowned,"  said 
Harry,  anxiously. 

"  No  I  didn't,"  answered  Tony,  pulling  a  big 


$2       WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

bunch  of  weeds  and  rubbing  his  legs  with  them 
"  I    kin  swim   well  enough,  but   a   fellar  has  a 
rough  time  in  the  water  with  big  boots  on  and 
his  pockets  full  o'  buck-shot." 

"  Couldn't  you  empty  the  shot  out?"  asked 
Harry. 

"  And  lose  it  all  ? "  asked  Tony,  with  an 
aggrieved  expression  upon  his  watery  face. 

"  But  how  did  it  happen?  "  Harry  earnestly 
inquired.  "  What  were  you  doing  in  the  boat  ?  " 

Tony  did  not  immediately  answer.  He 
rubbed  at  his  legs,  and  then  he  tried  to  wipe  his 
face  with  his  wet  coat-sleeve,  but  finding  that 
only  made  matters  worse,  he  accepted  Harry's 
offer  of  his  handkerchief,  and  soon  got  his  coun- 
tenance into  talking  order. 

"  Why,  you  see,"  said  he,  "  I  kept  on  up  the 
creek  till  I  got  opposite  John  Walker's  cabin, 
where  it's  narrow,  and  there's  a  big  tree  a-lyin' 
across —  " 

"  Still  following  that  thing  ?  "  interrupted 
Harry. 

"  Yes,"  said  Tony  ;  "  an'  then  I  got  over  on 
the  tree  and  kep'  down  the  creek —  " 

"  Still  following  ?  "  asked  Harry. 


TONY   STRIKES   OUT.  53 

"  Yes  ;  and  I  got  a  long  ways  down,  and  had 
one  bad  tumble,  too,  in  a  dirty  little  gully  ;  and 
it  was  pretty  nigh  day  when  I  turned  to  come 
back.  An'  then  when  I  got  up  here  I  thought  I1 
would  look  fur  John  Walker's  boat — fur  I  knew 
he  kept  it  tied  up  somewhere  down  this  way — 
and  save  myself  all  that  walk.  I  found  the  ole 
boat —  " 

"  And  how  did  it  upset  ?  "  said  Harry. 

"  Humph  !  "  said  Tony;  "  easy  enough.  I 
hadn't  nuthin  to  row  with  but  a  bit  o'  pole,  and 
I  got  a  sorter  cross  a-gettin'  along  so  slow,  and 
so  I  stood  up  and  gin  a  big  push,  and  one  foot 
slipped,  an'  over  she  went." 

"And  in  you  went!  "  said  Harry. 

"  Yes — in  I  went.  I  don't  see  what  ever  put 
John  Walker  up  to  makin'  sich  a  boat  as  that. 
It's  jist  the  meanest,  lopsidedest,  low-borndedst 
boat  I  ever  did  see." 

"I  don't  wonder  you  think  so,"  said  Harry, 
laughing;  "but  if  I  were  you,  I'd  go  home  as 
soon  as  I  could,  and  get  some  dry  clothes." 

"That's  so,"  said  Tony,  rising;  "these  feel 
like  the  inside  of  an  eelskin." 

"  Oh,    Tony  ! "  said  Harry,    as  they  walked 


54       WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

along  up  the  creek,  "  did  you  find  out  what  that 
thing  was  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  did,"  answered  Tony. 

"  And  what  was  it  ?  " 

"  It  was  Captain  Caseby." 

"Captain  Caseby?"  cried  Harry. 

"  Yes  ;  jist  him,  and  nuthin'  else.  It  was  his 
head  we  seen  agin  the  sky,  as  he  was  a-walkin' 
on  the  other  side  of  that  little  ridge." 

"  Captain  Caseby  !  "  again  ejaculated  Harry 
in  his  amazement. 

"Yes,  sir!"  said  Tony;  "an'  I'm  glad  I 
found  it  out  before  I  crossed  the  creek,  for  my 
gun  wasn't  no  further  use,  an'  it  was  only  in  my 
way,  so  I  left  it  in  the  bushes  up  here.  Ef  it 
hadn't  been  for  that,  the  ole  rifle  would  ha'  been 
at  the  bottom  of  the  creek." 

"  But  what  was  Captain  Caseby  doing  here 
in  the  woods  at  night?"  asked  Harry. 

"  Dunno,"  said  Tony  ;  "  I  jist  follered  him 
till  I  made  sure  he  wasn't  a-huntin'  for  my  tur- 
key-blind, and  then  I  let  him  go  'long.  His 
business  wasn't  no  consarn  o'  mine." 

When  Tony  and  Harry  had  nearly  reached 
the  village,  who  should  they  meet,  at  a  cross- 


TONY   STRIKES   OUT.  55 

road  in  the  woods,  but  Mr.  Loudon  and  Captain 
Caseby ! 

"Ho,  ho!"  cried  the  captain,  "where  on 
earth  have  you  been  ?  Here  I've  been  a-hunt- 
ing  you  all  night." 

"You  have,  have  you?"  said  Tony,  with  a 
chuckle;  "and  Harry  and  I've  been  a-huntin' 
you  all  night,  too." 

Everybody  now  began  to  talk  at  once. 
Harry's  father  was  so  delighted  to  find  his  boy 
again,  that  he  did  not  care  to  explain  anything, 
and  he  and  Harry  walked  off  together. 

But  Captain  Caseby  told  Tony  all  about  it. 
How  he,  Mr.  Loudon,  and  old  Mr.  Wagner,  had 
set  out  to  look  for  Harry ;  how  Mr.  Wagner  soon 
became  so  tired  that  he  had  to  give  up,  and  go 
home,  and  how  Mr.  Loudon  had  gone  through 
the  woods  to  the  north,  while  he  kept  down  by 
the  creek,  searching  on  both  sides  of  the  stream, 
and  how  they  had  both  walked,  and  walked,  and 
walked  all  night,  and  had  met  at  last  down  by 
the  river. 

"  How  did  you  manage  to  meet  Mr.  Lou- 
don ?  "  asked  Tony. 

"  I  heard   him  hollerin',"    said  the   captain. 


56        WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

"  He  hollered  pretty  near  all  night,  he  told 
me." 

"  Why  didn't  you  holler?"  Tony  asked. 

"  Oh,  I  never  exercise  my  voice  in  the  night 
air,"  said  the  captain.  "  It's  against  my  rules." 

"  Well,  you'd  better  break  your  rules  next 
time  you  go  out  in  the  woods  where  Harry  is," 
said  the  turkey-hunter,  "  or  he'll  pop  you  over 
for  a  turkey  or  a  musk-rat.  He's  a  sharp  shot,  I 
kin  tell  ye." 

"  You  don't  really  mean  he  was  after  me  last 
night  with  a  gun  !  "  exclaimed  Captain  Caseby. 

"  He  truly  was,"  declared  Tony  ;  "  he  was 
a-trackin'  you  his  Sunday  best.  It  was  bad  for 
you  that  it  was  so  dark  that  he  couldn't  see 
what  you  was  ;  but  it  might  have  been  worse  for 
ye  if  it  hadn't  been  so  dark  that  he  couldn't  find 
ye  at  all." 

"  I'm  glad  I  didn't  know  it,"  said  the  captain 
earnestly ;  "  thoroughly  and  completely  glad  I 
didn't  know  it.  I  should  have  yelled  all  the  skin 
off  my  throat,  if  I'd  have  known  he  was  after  me 
with  a  gun." 

After  Harry  had  been  home  an  hour  or  two, 
and  Kate  had  somewhat  recovered  from  her 


TONY   STRIKES   OUT.  57 

transports  of  joy,  and  everybody  in  the  village 
had  heard  all  about  everything  that  had  hap- 
pened, and  Captain  Caseby  had  declared,  in  the 
bosom  of  his  family,  that  he'd  never  go  out  into 
the  woods  again  at  night  without  keeping  up  a 
steady  "holler,"  Harry  remembered  that  he  had 
left  his  sumac-bag  somewhere  in  the  woods. 
Hard  work  for  a  whole  day  and  a  night,  and 
nothing  to  show  for  it !  Rather  a  poor  prospect 
for  Aunt  Matilda. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

AUNT  MATILDA'S  CHRISTMAS. 


Harry  and  Kate  held  council  that 
afternoon,  their  affairs  looked  a  little  dis- 
couraging. Kate's  sumac  was  weighed,  and  it 
was  only  seven  pounds  !  Seven  whole  cents,  if 
they  took  it  out  in  trade,  or  five  and  a  quarter 
cents,  as  Kate  calculated,  if  they  took  cash.  A 
woman  as  large  as  Aunt  Matilda  could  not  be 
supported  on  that  kind  of  an  income,  it  was  plain 
enough. 

But  our  brave  boy  and  girl  were  not  dis- 
couraged. Harry  went  after  his  bag  the  next 
day,  and  found  it  with  about  ten  pounds  of  leaves 
in  it.  Then,  for  a  week  or  two,  he  and  his  sister 
worked  hard  and  sometimes  gathered  as  much  as 
twenty-five  pounds  of  leaves  in  a  day.  But  they 
had  their  bad  days,  when  there  was  a  great  deal 
of  walking  and  very  little  picking. 

And  then,  in  due  course  of  time,  school  began 


AUNT  MATILDA'S  CHRISTMAS.  59 

and  the  sumac  season  was  at  an  end,  for  the 
leaves  are  not  merchantable  after  they  begin  to 
turn  red,  although  they  are  then  a  great  deal 
prettier  to  look  at. 

But  then  Harry  went  out  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  on  Saturdays,  and  shot  hares  and  par- 
tridges, and  Kate  began  to  sell  her  chickens,  of 
which  she  had  twenty-seven  (eighteen  died  natu- 
ral deaths,  or  were  killed  by  weasels  during  the 
summer),  they  found  that  they  made  more 
money  than  they  could  have  made  by  sumac 
gathering. 

"  It's  a  good  deal  for  you  two  to  do  for  that 
old  woman,"  said  Captain  Caseby,  one  day. 

"  But,  didn't  we  promise  to  do  it  ? "  said 
Miss  Kate,  bravely.  "  We'd  do  twice  as  much, 
if  there  were  two  of  her." 

It  was  very  fortunate,  however,  that  there 
were  not  two  of  her. 

Sometimes  they  had  extraordinary  luck. 
Early  one  November  morning  Harry  was  out  in 
the  woods  and  caught  sight  of  a  fat  wild-turkey. 

Bang! — one  dollar. 

That  was  enough  to  keep  Aunt  Matilda  for 
a  week. 


60        WHAT  MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

At  least  it  ought  to  have  kept  her.  But 
there  was  something  wrong  somewhere.  Every 
week  it  cost  more  and  more  to  keep  the  old 
colored  woman  in  what  Harry  called  "  eating 
material." 

"  Her  appetite  must  be  increasing,"  said 
Harry ;  "  she's  eaten  two  pecks  of  meal  this 
week." 

"I  don't  believe  it,"  said  Kate;  "she 
couldn't  do  it.  I  believe  she  has  company." 

And  this  turned  out  to  be  true. 

On  inquiry  they  found  that  Uncle  Braddock 
was  in  the  habit  of  taking  his  meals  with  Aunt 
Matilda,  sometimes  three  times  a  day.  Now, 
Uncle  Braddock  had  a  home  of  his  own,  where 
he  could  get  his  meals  if  he  chose  to  go  after 
them,  and  Harry  remonstrated  with  him  on 
his  conduct. 

"  Why,  ye  see,  Mah'sr  Harry,"  said  the  old 
man,  "  she's  so  drefful  lonesome  down  dar  all  by 
sheself,  and  sometimes  it's  a-rainin'  an'  a  long 
way  fur  me  to  go  home  and  git  me  wrapper  all 
wet  jist  fur  one  little  meal  o'  wittles.  And  when 
I  see  what  you  all  is  a-doin'  fur  her,  I  feels  dat 
I  oughter  try  and  do  somethin'  fur  her,  too,  as 


AUNT  MATILDA'S  CHRISTMAS.  61 

long  as  I  kin ;  an'  I  can't  expect  to  go  about 
much  longer,  Mah'sr  Harry ;  de  ole  wrapper's 
pretty  nigh  gin  out." 

"  I  don't  mind  your  taking  your  meals  there, 
now  and  then,"  said  Harry ;  "  but  I  don't  want 
you  to  live  there.  We  can't  afford  it." 

"  All  right,  Mah'sr  Harry,"  said  Uncle  Brad- 
dock,  and  after  that  he  never  came  to  Aunt 
Matilda's  to  meals  more  than  five  or  six  times  a 
week. 

And  now  Christmas,  always  a  great  holiday 
with  the  negroes  of  the  South,  was  approach- 
ing, and  Harry  and  Kate  determined  to  try  and 
give  Aunt  Matilda  extra  good  living  during 
Christmas  week,  and  to  let  her  have  company 
every  day  if  she  wanted  it. 

Harry  had  a  pig.  He  got  it  in  the  spring 
when  it  was  very  small,  and  when  its  little  tail 
was  scarcely  long  enough  to  curl.  There  was  a 
story  about  his  getting  this  pig. 

He  and  some  other  boys  had  been  out  walk- 
ing, and  several  dogs  went  along  with  them. 
The  dogs  chased  a  cat — a  beautiful,  smooth  cat, 
that  belonged  to  old  Mr.  Truly  Matthews.  The 
cat  put  off  at  the  top  of  her  speed,  which  was  a 


62         WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

good  deal  better  than  any  speed  the  dogs  could 
show,  and  darted  up  a  tree  right  in  front  of  her 
master's  house.  The  dogs  surrounded  the  tree 
and  barked  as  if  they  expected  to  bark  the  tree 
down.  One  little  fuzzy  dog,  with  short  legs  and 
hair  all  over  his  eyes,  actually  jumped  into  a 
low  crotch,  and  the  boys  thought  he  was  going 
to  try  to  climb  the  tree.  If  he  had  ever  reached 
the  cat  he  would  have  been  very  sorry 
he  hadn't  stayed  at  home,  for  she  was  a  good 
deal  bigger  than  he  was.  Harry  and  his  friends 
endeavored  to  drive  the  dogs  away  from  the 
tree,  but  it  was  of  no  use.  Even  kicks  and 
blows  only  made  them  bark  the  more.  Directly 
out  rushed  Mr.  Truly  Matthews,  as  angry  as  he 
could  be.  He  shouted  and  scolded  at  the  boys 
for  setting  their  dogs  on  his  cat,  and  then  he 
kicked  the  dogs  out  of  his  yard  in  less  time  than 
you  could  count  seventy-two.  He  was  very 
angry,  indeed,  and  talked  about  the  shocking 
conduct  of  the  boys  to  everybody  in  the  village. 
He  would  listen  to  no  explanations  or  excuses. 

Harry   was    extremely  sorry  that  Mr.   Mat-, 
thews  was  so  incensed  against  him,  especially  as 
he  knew  there  was  no  cause  for  it,  and  he  was 


AUNT   MATILDAS   CHRISTMAS.  63 

talking  about   it   to    Kate   one  day,  when   she 
exclaimed  : 

"  I'll  tell  you  what  will  be  sure  to  pacify  Mr. 
Mr.  Matthews,  Harry.     He   has    a   lot  of  little 
pigs  that  he  wants  to  sell.     Just  you  go  and  buy 
one  of  them,  and  see  if  he  isn't  as  good-natured  < 
as  ever,  when  he  sees  your  money." 

Harry  took  the  advice.  He  had  a  couple  of 
dollars,  and  with  them  he  bought  a  little  pig, 
the  smallest  of  the  lot ;  and  Mr.  Matthews,  who 
was  very  much  afraid  he  could  not  find  pur- 
chasers for  all  his  pigs,  was  as  completely  paci- 
fied as  Kate  thought  he  would  be. 

Harry  took  his  property  home,  and  all 
through  the  summer  and  fall  the  little  pig  ran 
about  the  yard  and  the  fields  and  the  woods, 
and  ate  acorns — and  sweet  potatoes  and  tur- 
nips when  he  could  get  a  chance  to  root  them  up 
with  his  funny  little  twitchy  nose — and  grunted 
and  slept  in  the  sun ;  and  about  the  middle  of 
December  he  had  grown  so  big  that  Harry  sold 
him  for  eleven  dollars.  Here  was  quite  a  capital 
for  Christmas. 

"  I  can't  afford  to  spend  it  all  on  Aunt 
Matilda,"  said  Harry  to  his  mother  and  Kate, 


64        WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN  EXPECTED. 

"  for  I  have  other  things  to  do  with  my  money. 
But  she's  bound  to  have  a  good  Christmas,  and 
we'll  make  her  a  present  besides.," 

Kate  was  delighted  with  his  idea,  and  imme- 
diately began  to  suggest  all  sorts  of  things  for 
the  present.  If  Harry  chose  to  buy  anything 
that  she  could  "  make  up,"  she  would  go  right 
to  work  at  it.  But  Harry  could  not  think  of 
anything  that  would  suit  exactly,  and  neither 
could  Kate,  nor  their  mother;  and  when  Mr. 
Loudon  was  taken  into  council,  at  dinner-time, 
he  could  suggest  nothing  but  an  army  blanket 
— which  suggestion  met  with  no  favor  at  all. 

At  last  Mr.  Loudon  advised  that  they  should 
ask  Aunt  Matilda  what  she  would  like  to  have 
for  a  present. 

"  There's  no  better  way  of  suiting  her  than 
that,"  said  he. 

So  Harry  and  Kate  went  down  to  the  old 
woman's  cabin  that  afternoon,  after  school,  and 
asked  her. 

Aunt  Matilda  didn't  hesitate  an  instant. 

"  Ef  you  chil'en  is  really  a-goin*  to  give  me  a 
present,  there  ain't  nothin'  I'd  rather  have  than 
a  Chrismis  tree." 


AUNT  MATILDA'S  CHRISTMAS.  65 

"  A  Christmas  tree  !  "  cried  Harry  and  Kate, 
both  bursting  out  laughing. 

"  Yes,  indeed,  chil'en.  Ef  ye  give  me  any- 
thing, give  me  a  good  big  fiery  Chrismis  tree 
like  you  all  had,  year  'fore  las'." 

Two  years  before,  Harry  and  Kate  had  had 
their  last  Christmas  tree.  There  were  no  young- 
er children,  and  these  two  were  now  considered 
to  have  outgrown  that  method  of  celebrating 
Christmas.  But  they  had  missed  their  tree  last 
year — missed  it  very  much. 

And  now  Aunt  Matilda  wanted  one.  It  was 
the  very  thing ! 

"  Hurrah  !  "  cried  Harry  ;  "  you  shall  have  it. 
Hurrah  for  Aunt  Matilda's  Christmas  tree !  " 

"  Hurrah  !  "  cried  Kate  ;  "won't  it  be  splen- 
did ?  Hurrah  !  " 

"  Hurrah  ! "  said  Uncle  Braddock,  who  was 
just  coming  up  to  the  cabin  door,  but  he  did  not 
shout  very  loud,  and  nobody  heard  him. 

"  Hurrah  !  I  wonder  what  dey's  all  hurrahin' 
about  ?  "  he  said  to  himself. 

Harry  and  Kate  had  started  off  to  run  home 
with  the  news,  but  Aunt  Matilda  told  the  old 
man  all  about  it,  and  when  he  heard  there  was 


66        WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

to  be  a  Christmas  tree,  he  was  just  as  glad  as 
anybody. 

When  it  became  generally  known  that  Aunt 
Matilda  was  to  have  a  Christmas  tree,  the  peo- 
ple of  the  neighborhood  took  a  great  interest  in 
the  matter.  John  Walker  and  Dick  Ford,  two 
colored  men  of  the  vicinity,  volunteered  to  get 
the  tree.  But  when  they  went  out  into  the 
woods  to  cut  it,  eighteen  other  colored  people, 
big  and  little,  followed  them,  some  to  help  and 
some  to  give  advice. 

A  very  fine  tree  was  selected.  It  was  a  pine, 
ten  feet  high,  and  when  they  brought  it  into 
Aunt  Matilda's  cabin,  they  could  not  stand  it 
upright,  for  her  ceiling  was  rather  low. 

When  Harry  and  Kate  came  home  from 
school  they  were  rather  surprised  to  see  so  big 
a  tree,  but  it  was  such  a  fine  one  that  they 
thought  they  must  have  it.  After  some  consid- 
eration it  was  determined  to  erect  it  in  a  desert- 
ed cabin,  near  by,  which  had  no  upper  floor,  and 
was  high  enough  to  allow  the  tree  to  stand  up 
satisfactorily.  This  was,  indeed,  an  excellent 
arrangement,  for  it  was  better  to  keep  the  deco- 
ration of  the  Christmas  tree  a  secret  from  Aunt 
Matilda  until  all  was  completed. 


AUNT  MATILDA'S  CHRISTMAS.  67 

The  next  day  was  a  holiday,  and  Harry  and 
Kate  went  earnestly  to  work.  A  hole  was  dug 
in  the  clay  floor  of  the  old  cabin,  and  the  tree 
planted  firmly  therein.  It  was  very  firm,  indeed, 
for  a  little  colored  boy  named  Josephine's  Bobby 
climbed  nearly  to  the  topmost  branch,  without 
shaking  it  very  much.  For  four  or  five  days  the 
work  of  decorating  the  tree  went  on.  Every- 
body talked  about  it,  a  great  many  laughed  at 
it,  and  nearly  everybody  seemed  inclined  to  give 
something  to  hang  upon  its  branches.  Kate 
brought  a  large  box  containing  the  decorations 
of  her  last  Christmas  tree,  and  she  and  Harry 
hung  sparkling  balls,  and  golden  stars,  and  silver 
fishes,  and  red  and  blue  paper  angels,  and  candy 
swans,  and  sugar  pears,  and  glittering  things  of 
all  sorts,  shapes,  and  sizes  upon  the  boughs. 
Harry  had  a  step-ladder,  and  Dick  Ford  and  five 
colored  boys  held  it  firmly  while  he  stood  on  it 
and  tied  on  the  ornaments.  Very  soon  the 
neighbors  began  to  send  in  their  contributions. 
Mrs.  Loudon  gave  a  stout  woollen  dress,  which 
was  draped  over  a  lower  branch ;  while  Mr. 
Loudon,  who  was  not  to  be  diverted  from  his 
original  idea,  sent  an  army  blanket,  which  Kate 


68    WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

arranged  around  the  root  of  the  tree,  so  as  to 
look  as  much  as  possible  like  gray  moss.  Mr. 
Darby,  who  kept  the  store,  sent  a  large  paper 
bag  of  sugar  and  a  small  bag  of  tea,  which  were 
carefully  hung  on  lower  branches.  Miss  Jane 
Davis  thought  she  ought  to  do  something,  and 
she  contributed  a  peck  of  sweet  potatoes,  which, 
each  tied  to  a  string,  were  soon  dangling  from 
the  branches.  Then  Mr.  Truly  Matthews,  who 
did  not  wish  to  be  behind  his  neighbors  in  gen- 
erosity, sent  a  shoulder  of  bacon,  which  looked 
quite  magnificent  as  it  hung  about  the  middle  of 
the  tree.  Other  people  sent  bars  of  soap,  bags 
of  meal,  packages  of  smoking-tobacco,  and  flan- 
nel petticoats.  A  pair  of  shoes  was  contributed, 
and  several  pairs  of  stockings,  which  latter  were 
filled  with  apples  arid  hickory-nuts  by  the  con- 
siderate Kate.  Several  of  the  school  children 

gave  sticks  of  candy ;  and  old  Mrs.  Sarah  Page, 

v 
who  had  nothing  else  to  spare,  brought  a  jug  of 

molasses,  which  was  suspended  near  the  top  of 
the  tree.  Kate  did  not  fancy  the  appearance  of 
the  jug,  and  she  wreathed  it  with  strings  of  glit- 
tering glass  balls ;  and  the  shoulder  of  bacon 
she  stuck  full  of  red  berries  and  holly-leaves. 


AUNT  MATILDA'S  CHRISTMAS.  69 

Harry  contributed  a  bright  red  handkerchief  for 
Aunt  Matilda's  head,  and  Kate  gave  a  shawl 
which  was  yellower  than  a  sunflower,  if  such  a 
thing  could  be.  And  Harry  bore  the  general 
expenses  of  the  "  extras,"  which  were  not  trifling. 
When  Christmas  eve  arrived  everybody  came 
to  see  Aunt  Matilda's  Christmas  tree.  Kate  and 
Harry  were  inside  superintending  the  final  ar- 
rangements, and  about  fifty  or  sixty  persons, 
colored  and  white,  were  gathered  around  the 
closed  door  of  the  old  cabin.  When  all  was 
ready  Aunt  Matilda  made  her  appearance,  sup- 
ported on  either  side  by  Dick  Ford  and  John 
Walker,  while  Uncle  Braddock,  in  his  many- 
colored  dressing-gown,  followed  close  behind. 
Then  the  door  was  opened,  and  Aunt  Matilda 
entered,  followed  by  as  many  of  the  crowd  as 
could  get  in.  It  was  certainly  a  scene  of  splen- 
dor. A  wood  fire  blazed  in  the  fire-place  at  one 
end  of  the  cabin,  while  dozens  of  tallow  candles 
lighted  up  the  tree.  The  gold  and  silver  stars 
glistened,  the  many-colored  glass  balls  shone 
among  the  green  pine  boughs  ;  the  shoulder  of 
bacon  glowed  like  a  bed  of  flowers,  while  the  jug 
of  molasses  hung  calm  and  serene,  surrounded  by 


7O        WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

its  glittering  beads.  A  universal  buzz  of  appro- 
bation and  delight  arose.  No  one  had  ever  seen 
such  a  Christmas  tree  before.  Every  bough  and 
every  branch  bore  something  useful  as  well  as 
ornamental. 

As  for  Aunt  Matilda,  for  several  moments 
she  remained  speechless  with  delight.  At  last 
she  exclaimed  : 

"  Laws-a-massey !  It's  wuth  while  being 
good  for  ninety-five  years  to  git  such  a  tree  at 
las'." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
A  LIVELY  TEAM. 

"  T  WANT  you  to  understand,  Harry,"  said  Mr. 
Loudon,  one  day,  "  that  I  do  not  disapprove 
of  what  you  and  Kate  are  doing  for  old  Aunt 
Matilda.  On  the  contrary,  I  feel  proud  of  you 
both.  The  idea  was  honorable  to  you,  and,  so 
far,  you  have  done  very  well ;  better  than  I 
expected ;  and  I  believe  I  was  a  little  more  san- 
guine than  any  one  else  in  the  village.  But  you 
must  not  forget  that  you  have  something  else  to 
think  of  besides  making  money  for  Aunt  Ma- 
tilda." 

"  But,  don't  I  think  of  other  things,  father  ?  " 
said  Harry.  "  I'm  sure  I  get  along  well-  enough 
at  school." 

"  That  may  be,  my  boy ;  but  I  want  you  to 
get  along  better  than  well  enough." 

This  little  conversation  made  quite 'an  im- 
pression on  Harry,  and  he  talked  to  Kate  about  it. 


72        WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

"  I  suppose  father's  right,"  said  she ;  "  but 
what's  to  be  done  about  it?  Is  that  poor  old 
woman  to  have  only  half  enough  to  eat,  so  that 
you  may  read  twice  as  much  Virgil  ?  " 

Harry  laughed. 

"  But  perhaps  she  will  have  five-eighths  of 
enough  to  eat  if  I  only  read  nine-sixteenths  as 
much  Latin,"  said  he. 

"  Oh !  you're  always  poking  arithmetic  fun 
at  me,"  said  Kate.  "  But  I  tell  you  what  you 
can  do,"  she  continued.  "  You  can  get  up  half 
an  hour  earlier,  every  morning,  and  that  will 
give  you  a  good  deal  of  extra  time  to  think  about 
your  lessons." 

"  I  can  think  about  them  in  bed,"  said 
Harry. 

"Humph!"  said  Kate;  and  she  went  on 
with  her  work.  She  was  knitting  a  "  tidy," 
worth  two  pounds  of  sugar,  or  half  a  pound  of 
tea,  when  it  should  be  finished. 

Harry  did  not  get  up  any  earlier  ;  for,  as  he 
expressed  it,  "  It  was  dreadfully  cold  before 
breakfast,"  on  those  January  mornings ;  but  his 
father  and  mother  noticed  that  the  subject  of 
Aunt  Matilda's  maintenance  did  not  so  entirely 


A   LIVELY  TEAM.  73 

engross  the  conversation  of  the  brother  and 
sister  in  the  evenings  ;  and  they  had  their  heads 
together  almost  as  often  over  slate  and  school- 
books  as  over  the  little  account-book  in  which 
Kate  put  down  receipts  and  expenditures. 

On  a  Thursday  night,  about  the  middle  of 
January,  there  was  a  fall  of  snow.  Not  a  very 
heavy  fall ;  the  snow  might  have  been  deeper, 
but  it  was  deep  enough  for  sledding.  On  the 
Friday,  Harry,  in  connection  with  another  boy, 
Tom  Selden,  several  years  older  than  himself, 
concocted  a  grand  scheme.  "They  would  haul 
wood,  on  a  sled,  all  day  Saturday. 

It  was  not  to  be  any  trifling  little  "  boy-play  " 
wood-hauling.  Harry's  father  owned  a  wood- 
sled — one  of  the  very  few  sleds  or  sleighs  in  the 
county — which  was  quite  an  imposing  affair,  as 
to  size,  at  least.  It  was  about  eight  feet  long 
and  four  feet  wide  ;  and  although  it  was  rough 
enough, — being  made  of  heavy  boards,  nailed 
transversely  upon  a  couple  of  solid  runners,  with 
upright  poles  to  keep  the  load  in,  its  place — it 
was  a  very  good  sled,  as  far  as  it  went,  which 
had  not  been  very  far  of  late ;  for  there  had 
been  no  good  sledding  for  several  seasons.  Old 
4 


74        WHAT  MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN  EXPECTED. 

Mr.  Truly  Matthews  had  a  large  pile  of  wood 
cut  in  a  forest  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the 
village,  and  the  boys  knew  that  he  wanted  it 
hauled  to  the  house,  and  that,  by  a  good  day's 
work,  considerable  money  could  be  made. 

All  the  arrangements  were  concluded  on  Fri- 
day, which  was  a  half-holiday,  on  account  of  the 
snow  making  travelling  unpleasant  for  those 
scholars  who  lived  at  a  distance.  Harry's  father 
gave  his  consent  to  the  plan,  and  loaned  his  sled. 
Three  negro  men  agreed  to  help  for  one-fourth 
of  the  profits.  Tom  Selden  went  into  the  affair, 
heart  and  hand,  agreeing  to  take  his  share  out 
in  fun.  What  money  was  made,  after  paying 
expenses,  was  to  go  into  the  Aunt  Matilda  Fund, 
which  was  tolerably  low  about  that  time. 

Kate  gave  her  earnest  sanction  to  the 
scheme,  which  was  quite  disinterested  on  her 
part,  for,  being  a  girl,  she  could  not  very  well  go 
on  a  wood-hauling  expedition,  and  she  could  ex- 
pect to  do  little  else  but  stay  at  home  and  calcu- 
late the  probable  profits  of  the 'trips. 

The. only  difficulty  was  to  procure  a  team  ; 
and  nothing  less  than  a  four-horse  team  would 
satisfy  the  boys. 


A   LIVELY  TEAM.  75 

Mr.  Loudon  lent  one  horse,  old-  Selim,  a  big 
brown  fellow,  who  was  very  good  at  pulling 
when  he  felt  in  the  humor.  Tom  could  bring 
no  horse  ;  for  his  father  did  not  care  to  lend  his 
horses  for  such  a  purpose.  He  was  afraid  they 
might  get  their  legs  broken  ;  and,  strange  as  it 
seemed  to  the  boys,  most  of  the  neighbors  ap- 
peared to  have  similar  notions.  Horses  were 
very  hard  to  borrow  that  Friday  afternoon. 
But  a  negro  man,  named  Isaac  Waddell,  agreed 
to  hire  his  thin  horse  Hector,  for  fifty  cents  for 
the  day  ;  and  the  store-keeper,  after  much  per- 
suasion, lent  a  big  gray  mule,  Grits  by  name. 
There  was  another  mule  in  the  village,  which 
the  boys  could  have  if  they  wanted  her;  but 
they  didn't  want  her — that  is,  if  they  could  get 
anything  else  with  four  legs  that  would  do  to  go 
in  their  team.  This  was  Polly,  a  little  mule, 
belonging  to  Mrs.  Dabney,  who  kept  the  post- 
office.  Polly  was  not  only  very  little  in  size,  but 
she  was  also  very  little  given  to  going.  She  did 
not  particularly  object  to  a  walk,  if  it  were  not 
too  long,  and  would  pull  a  buggy  or  carry  a  man 
with  great  complacency,  but  she  seldom  in- 
dulged in  trotting.  It  was  of  no  use  to  whip 


76       WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

her.  Her  skin  was  so  thick,  or  so  destitute  of 
feeling,  that  she  did  not  seem  to  take  any  notice 
of  a  good  hard  crack.  Polly  was  not  a  favorite, 
but  she  doubtless  had  her  merits,  although  no 
one  knew  exactly  what  they  were.  Perhaps  the 
best  thing  that  could  be  said  about  her  was,  that 
she  did  not  take  up  much  room. 

But,  on  Saturday,  it  was  evident  that  Polly 
would  have  to  be  taken,  for  no  animal  could  be 
obtained  in  her  place. 

So,  soon  after  breakfast,  the  team  was  col- 
lected in  Mr.  Loudon's  back- yard,  and  harnessed 
to  the  sled.  Besides  the  three  negroes  who  had 
been  hired,  there  were  seven  volunteers — some 
big  and  some  little — who  were  very  willing  to 
work  for  nothing,  if  they  might  have  a  ride  on 
the  sled.  The  harness  was  not  the  best  in  the 
world  ;  some  of  it  was  leather,  and  some  was 
rope  and  some  was  chain.  It  was  gathered  to- 
gether from  various  quarters,  like  the  team — 
nobody  seemed  anxious  to  lend  good  harness. 

Grits  and  thin  Hector  were  the  leaders,  and 
Polly  and  old  Selim  were  the  pole-horses,  so  to 
speak. 

When  all  the  straps  were  buckled,  and  the 


A   LIVELY  TEAM.  77 

chains  hooked,  and  the  knots  tied  (and  this  took 
a  good  while,  as  there  were  only  twelve  men  and 
boys  to  do  it),  Dick  Ford  jumped  on  old  Selim, 
little  Johnny  Sand,  as  black  as  ink,  was  hoisted 
on  Grits,  and  Gregory  Montague,  a  tall  yellow 
boy,  with  high  boots  and  no  toes  to  them,  be- 
strode thin  Hector.  Harry,  Tom,  and  nine 
negroes  (two  more  had  just  come  into  the  yard) 
jumped  on  the  sled.  Dick  Ford  cracked  his 
whip  ;  Kate  stood  on  the  back-door  step  and 
clapped  her  hands  ;  all  the  darkies  shouted  ;  Tom 
and  Harry  hurrahed  ;  and  away  they  didn't  go. 

Polly  wasn't  ready. 

And  what  was  more,  old  brown  Selim  was 
perfectly  willing  to  wait  for  her.  He  looked 
around  mildly  at  the  little  mule,  as  if  he  would 
say :  "  Now,  don't  be  in  a  hurry,  my  good  Polly. 
Be  sure  you're  right  before  you  go  ahead." 

Polly  was  quite  sure  she  wasn't  right,  and 
stood  as  stiffly  as  if  she  had  been  frozen  to  the 
ground,  and  all  the  cracking  of  whips  and  shout- 
ing of  "  Git  up  !  "  "  Go  'long  !  "  "  What  do  you 
mean,  dar  ?  you  Polly  !  "  made  no  impression 
on  her. 


78        WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

Then  Harry  made  his  voice  heard  above  the 
hubhub. 

"Never  mind  Polly!"  he  shouted.  "Let 
her  alone.  Dick,  and  you  other  fellows,  just 
start  off  your  own  horses.  Now,  then  !  Get  up, 
all  of  you  !  " 

"  At  this,  every  rider  whipped  up  his  horse 
or  his  mule,  and  spurred  him  with  his  heels,  and 
every  darkey  shouted,  "  Hi,  dar!  "  and  off  they 
went,  rattledy-bang ! 

Polly  went,  too.  There  was  never  such  an 
astonished  little  mule  in  this  world  !  Out  of  the 
gate  they  all  whirled  at  full  gallop,  and  up  the 
road,  tearing  along.  Negroes  shouting,  chains 
rattling,  snow  flying  back  from  sixteen  pounding 
hoofs,  sled  cutting  through  the  snow  like  a  ship 
at  sea,  and  a  little  darkey  shooting  out  behind 
at  every  bounce  over  a  rough  place  ! 

"  Hurrah!  "  cried  Harry,  holding  tight  to  an 
upright  pole.  "  Isn't  this  splendid  !  " 

"  Splendid  !  It's  glorious  !  "  shouted  Tom. 
"  It's  better  than  being  a  pi — "  And  down  he 
went  on  his  knees,  as  the  big  sled  banged  over  a 
stone  in  the  road,  and  Josephine's  Bobby  was 
bounced  out  into  a  snow-drift  under  a  fence. 


A  LIVELY   TEAM.  79 

Whether  Tom  intended  to  say  a  pirate  or  a 
pyrotechnic,  was  never  discovered ;  but,  in  six 
minutes,  there  was  only  one  of  the- small  darkies 
left  on  the  sled.  The  men,  and  this  one,  John 
William  Webster,  hung  on  to  the  poles  as  if  they 
were  glued  there. 

As  for  Polly,  she  was  carried  along  faster 
than  she  ever  went  before  in  her  life.  She 
jumped,  she  skip.ped,  she  galloped,  she  slid,  she 
skated  ;  sometimes  sitting  down,  and  sometimes 
on  her  feet,  but  flying  along,  all  the  same,  no 
matter  how  she  chose  to  go. 

And  so,  rattling,  shouting,  banging,  boun- 
cing ;  snow  flying  and  whips  cracking,  on  they 
sped,  until  John  William  Webster's  pole  came 
out,  and  clip  !  he  went  heels  over  head  into  the 
snow. 

But  John  William  had  a  soul  above  tumbles. 
In  an  instant  he  jerked  himself  up  to  his  feet, 
dropped  the  pole,  and  dashed  after  the  sled. 

Swiftly  onward  went  the  sled  and  right  be- 
hind came  John  William,  his  legs  working  like 
steamboat  wheels,  his  white  teeth  shining,  and 
his  big  eyes  sparkling  ! 

There  was  no  stopping  the  sled ;  but  there 


80        WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

was  no  stopping  John  William,  either,  and  in  less 
than  two  minutes  he  reached  the  sled,  grabbed  a 
man  b^y  the  leg,  and  tugged  and  pulled  until  he 
seated  himself  on  the  end  board. 

"  I  tole  yer  so !  "  said  he,  when  he  got  his 
breath.  And  yet  he  hadn't  told  anybody  any- 
thing. 

And  now  the  woods  were  reached,  and  after 
a  deal  of  pulling  and  shouting,  the  team  was 
brought  to  a  halt,  and  then  slowly  led  through 
a  short  road  to  where  the  wood  was  piled. 

The  big 'mule  and  the  horses  steamed  and 
puffed  a  little,  but  Polly  stood  as  calm  as  a 
rocking-horse. 

Notwithstanding  the  rapidity  of  the  drive,  it 
was  late  when  the  party  reached  the  woods. 
The  gathering  together  and  harnessing  of  the 
team  had  taken  much  longer  than  they  expected  ; 
and  so  the  boys  set  to  work  with  a  will  to  load 
the  sled ;  for  they  wanted  to  make  two  trips 
that  morning.  But  although  they  all,  black  and 
white,  worked  hard,  it  was  slow  business.  Some 
of  the  wood  was  cut  and  split  properly,  and 
some  was  not,  and  then  the  sled  had  to  be 


A   LIVELY   TEAM.  8 1 

turned  around,  and  there  was  but  little  room  to 
do  it  in,  and  so  a  good  deal  of  time  was  lost. 

But  at  last  the  sled  was  loaded  up,  and  they 
were  nearly  ready  to  start,  when  John  William 
Webster,  who  had  run  out  to  the  main  road,  set 
up  a  shout : 

"  Oh !  Mah'sr  Harry !  Mah'sr  Tom  !  " 

Harry  and  Tom  ran  out  to  the  road,  and 
stood  there  petrified  with  astonishment. 

Where  was  the  snow? 

It  was  all  gone,  excepting  a  little  here  and 
there  in  the  shade  of  the  fence  corners.  The 
day  had  turned  out  to  be  quite  mild,  and  the 
sun,  which  was  now  nearly  at  its  noon  height, 
had  melted  it  all  away. 

Here  was  a  most  unlooked-for  state  of 
affairs!  What  was  to  be  done?  The  boys  ran 
back  to  the  sled,  and  the  colored  men  ran  out 
to  the  road,  and  everybody  talked  and  nobody 
seemed  to  say  anything  of  use. 

At  last  Dick  Ford  spoke  up : 

"  I  tell  ye  what,  Mah'sr  Harry  !  I  say,  just 
let's  go  'long,"  said  he. 

"But  how  are  you  going  to  do  it?"  said 
Harry.  "  There's  no  snow." 


82        WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

"  I  know  that ;  but  de  mud's  jist  as  slippery  as 
grease.  That  thar  team  kin  pull  it,  easy  'nuff! " 

Marry  and  Tom  consulted  together,  and 
agreed  to  drive  out  to  the  road  and  try  what 
could  be  done,  and  then,  if  the  loaded  sled  was 
too  much  for  the  team,  they  would  throw  off  the 
wood  and  go  home  with  the  empty  sled. 

There  was  snow  enough  until  they  reached 
the  road — for  very  little  had  melted  in  the 
woods — and  when  they  got  fairly  out  on  the 
main  road  the  team  did  not  seem  to  mind  the 
change  from  snow  to  thin  mud. 

The  load  was  not  a  very  heavy  one,  and 
there  were  two  horses  and  two  mules — a  pretty 
strong  team. 

Polly  did  very  well.  She  was  now  harnessed 
with  Grits  in  the  lead  ;  and  she  pulled  along 
bravely.  But  it  was  slow  work,  compared  to 
the  lively  ride  over  the  snow.  The  boys  and 
the  men  trudged  through  the  mud,  by  the  side 
of  the  sled,  and,  looking  at-it  in  the  best  possible 
light,  it  was  a  very  dull  way  to  haul  wood. 
The  boys  agreed  that  after  this  trip  they  would 
be  very  careful  not  to  go  on  another  mud-sled- 
ding expedition. 


A   LIVELY  TEAM.  83 

But  soon  they  came  to  a  long  hill,  and, 
going  down  this,  the  team  began  to  trot,  and 
Harry  and  Tom  and  one  or  two  of  the  men 
jumped  on  the  edges  of  the  sled,  outside  of  the 
load,  holding  on  to  the  poles.  Then  Grits,  the 
big  mule,  began  to  run,  and  Gregory  couldn't 
hold  him  in,  and  old  Selim  and  thin  Hector  and 
little  Polly  all  struck  out  on  a  gallop,  and  away 
they  went,  bumping  and  thumping  down  the  hill. 

And  then  stick  after  stick,  two  sticks,  six 
sticks,  a  dozen  sticks  at  a  time,  slipped  out 
behind. 

It  was  of  no  use  to  catch  at  them  to  hold 
them  on.  They  were  not  fastened  down  in  any 
way,  and  Harry  and  Tom  and  the  men  on  the 
sled  had  as  much  as  they  could  do  to  hold 
themselves  on. 

When  they  reached  the  bottom  of  the  hill 
the  pulling  became  harder ;  but  Grits  had  no 
idea  of  stopping  for  that.  He  was  bound  for 
home.  And  so  he  plunged  on  at  the  top  of  his 
speed.  But  the  rest  of  the  team  did  not  fancy 
going  so  fast  on  level  ground,  and  they  slack- 
ened their  pace. 

This  did  not  suit  Grits.     He  gave  one  tre- 


84        WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

mendous  bound,  burst  loose  from  his  harness, 
and  dashed  ahead.  Up  went  his  hind  legs  in 
the  air;  off  shot  Gregory  Montague  into  the 
mud,  and  then  away  went  Grits,  clipperty-clap  ! 
home  to  his  stable. 

When  Harry  and  Tom,  the  two  horses,  the 
little  mule,  the  eight  colored  men,  the  sled, 
John  William  Webster  and  eleven  logs  of  wood 
reached  the  village  it  was  considerably  after 
dinner-time. 

When  the  horse-hire  was  paid,  and  some- 
thing was  expended  for  mending  borrowed  har- 
ness7and  the  negroes  had  received  a  little  present 
for  their  labor,  the  Aunt  Matilda  Fund  was 
diminished  by  the  sum  of  three  dollars  and 
eighty  cents. 

Mr.  Truly  Matthews  agreed  to  say  nothing 
about  the  loss  of  his  wood  that  was  scattered 
along  the  road. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

BUSINESS  IN  EARNEST. 

A  LTHOUGH  Harry  did  not  find  his  wood- 
^~^-  hauling  speculation  very  profitable,  it  was 
really  of  advantage  to  him,  for  it  gave  him  an 
idea. 

And  his  idea  was  a  very  good  one.  He  saw 
clearly  enough  that  money  could  be  made  by 
hauling  wood,  and  he  was  also  quite  certain 
that  it  would  never  do  for  him  to  take  his  time, 
especially  during  school  term,  for  that  purpose. 
So,  after  consultation  with  his  father,  and  after 
a  great  deal  of  figuring  by  Kate,  he  determined 
to  go  into  the  business  in  a  regular  way. 

About  five  miles  from  the  village  was  a  rail- 
road station,  and  it  was  also  a  wood  station. 
Here  the  railroad  company  paid  two  dollars  a 
cord  for  wood  delivered  on  their  grounds. 

Two  miles  from  the  station,  on  the  other  side 
of  Crooked  Creek,  Harry's  father  owned  a  large 


86        WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

tract  of  forest  land,  and  here  Harry  received 
permission  to  cut  and  take  away  all  the  wood 
that  he  wanted.  Mr.  London  was,  perfectly  will- 
ing, in  this  way,  to  help  his  children  in  their 
good  work. 

So  Harry  made  arrangements  with  Dick 
Ford  and  John  Walker,  who  were  not  regularly 
hired  to  any  one  that  winter,  to  cut  and  haul  his 
wood  for  him,  on  shares.  John  Walker  had  a 
wagon,  which  was  merely  a  set  of  wheels,  with  a 
board  floor  laid  on  the  axletrees,  and  the  use  of 
this  he  contributed  in  consideration  of  a  little 
larger  share  in  the  profits.  Harry  hired  Grits 
and  another  mule  at  a  low  rate,  as  there  was  not 
much  for  mules  to  do  at  that  time  of  the  year. 

The  men  were  to  cut  up  and  deliver  the 
wood  and  get  receipts  for  it  from  the  station- 
master  ;  and  it  was  to  be  Harry's  business  to 
collect  the  money  at  stated  times,  and  divide 
the  proceeds  according  to  the  rate  agreed  upon. 
Harry  and  his  father  made  the  necessary  ar- 
rangements with  the  station-master,  and  thus 
all  the  preliminaries  were  settled  quite  satisfac- 
torily. 

In  a  few  days  the  negroes  were  at  work,  and 


BUSINESS  IN   EARNEST.  8/ 

as  they  both  lived  but  a  short  distance  from  the 
creek,  on  the  village  side,  it  was  quite  conve- 
nient for  them.  John  Walker  had  a  stable  in 
which  to  keep  the  mules,  and  the  cost  of  their 
feed  was  also  to  be  added  to  his  share  of  the 
profits. 

In  a  short  time  Harry  had  quite  a  number 
of  applications  from  negroes  who  wished  to  cut 
wood  for  him,  but  he  declined  to  hire  any  addi- 
tional force  until  he  saw  how  his  speculation 
would  turn  out. 

Old  Uncle  Braddock  pleaded  hard  to  be 
employed.  He  could  not  cut  wood,  nor  could 
he  drive  a  team,  but  he^was  sure  he  could  be  of 
great  use  as  overseer. 

"  You  see,  Mah'sr  Harry,"  he  said,  "  I  lib 
right  on  de  outside  edge  ob  you'  pa's  woods, 
and  I  kin  go  ober  dar  jist  as  easy  as  nuffih,  early 
every  mornin',  and  see  dat  dem  boys  does  dere 
work,  and  don't  chop  down  de  wrong  trees. 
Mind  now,  I  tell  ye,  you  all  will  make  a  pile  o' 
money  ef  ye  jist  hire  me  to  obersee  dem  boys." 

For  some  time  Harry  resisted  his  entreaties, 
but  at  last,  principally  on  account  of  Kate's  ar- 
gument that  the  old  man  ought  to  be  encouraged 


88        WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

in  making  something  toward  his  living,  if  he  were 
able  and  willing  to  do  so,  Harry  hired  him  on 
his  own  terms,  which  were  ten  cents  a  day. 

About  four  o'clock  every  afternoon  during 
his  engagement,  Uncle  Braddock  made  his  ap- 
pearance in  the  village,  to  demand  his  ten  cents. 
When  Harry  remonstrated  with  him  on  his  quit- 
ting work  so  early,  he  said  : 

"  Why,  you  see,  Mah'sr  Harry,  it's  a  long 
way  from  dem  woods  here,  and  I  got  to  go  all 
de  way  back  home  agin  ;  and  it  gits  dark  mighty 
early  dese  short  days." 

In  about  a  week  the  old  man  came  to  Harry 
and  declared  that  he  must  throw  up  his  engage- 
ment. 

"  What's  the  matter?"  asked  Harry. 

"I'm  gwine  to  gib  updatjob,  Mah'sr  Harry." 

"  But  why  ?  You  wanted  it  bad  enough," 
said  Harry. 

"  But  I'm  gwine  to  gib  it  up  now,"  said  the 
old  man. 

"Well,  I  want  you  to  tell  me  your  reasons 
for  giving  it  up,"  persisted  Harry. 

Uncle  Braddock  stood  silent  for  a  few  min- 
utes, and  then  he  said: 


BUSINESS  IN  EARNEST.  89 

"Well,  Mah'sr  Harry,  dis  is  jist  de  truf ;  dem 
ar  boys,  dey  ses  to  me  dat  ef  I  come  foolin' 
around  dere  any  more,  dey'd  jist  chop  me  up, 
ole  wrapper  an'  all,  and  haul  me  off  fur  kindlin' 
wood.  Dey  say  I  was  dry  enough.  An'  dey 
needn't  a  made  sich  a  fuss  about  it,  fur  I  didn't 
trouble  'em  much ;  hardly  eber  went  nigh  'em. 
Ten  cents'  worf  o'  oberseein'  aint  a-gwine  to 
hurt  nobody." 

"  Well,  Uncle  Braddock,"  said  Harry,  laugh- 
ing, "  I  think  you're  wise  to  give  it  up." 

"  Dat's  so,"  said  the  old  negro,  and  away  he 
trudged  to  Aunt  Matilda's  cabin,  where,  no 
doubt,  he  ate  a  very  good  ten  cents'  worth  of 
corn-meal  and  bacon. 

This  wood  enterprise  of  Harry's  worked 
pretty  well  on  the  whole.  Sometimes  the  men 
cut  and  hauled  quite  steadily,  and  sometimes 
they  didn't.  Once  every  two  weeks  Harry  rode 
over  to  the  station,  and  collected  what  was  due 
him  ;  and  his  share  of  the  profits  kept  Aunt 
Matilda  quite  comfortably. 

But,  although  Kate  was  debarred  from  any 
share  in  this  business,  she  worked  every  day  at 
her  tidies  for  the  store,  and  knit  stockings,  be- 


9O        WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

sides,  for  some  of  the  neighbors,  who  furnished 
the  yarn  and  paid  her  a  fair  price.  There  were 
people  who  thought  Mrs.  Loudon  did  wrong  in 
allowing  her  daughter  to  work  for  money  in  this 
way,  but  Kate's  mother  said  that  the  end  justi- 
fied the  work,  and  that  so  long  as  Kate  perse- 
vered in  her  self-appointed  tasks,  she  should  not 
interfere. 

As  for  Kate,  she  said  she  should  work  on,  no 
matter  how  much  money  Harry  made.  There 
was  no  knowing  what  might  happen. 

But  the  most  important  of  Kate's  duties  was 
the  personal  attention  she  paid  to  Aunt  Matilda. 
She  went  over  to  the  old  woman's  cabin  every 
day  or  two,  and  saw  that  she  was  kept  warm  and 
had  what  she  needed. 

And  these  visits  had  a  good  influence  on  the 
old  woman,  for  her  cabin  soon  began  to  look 
much  neater,  now  that  a  nice  little  girl  came  to 
see  her  so  often. 

When  the  spring  came  on,  Aunt  Matilda 
actually  took  it  into  her  head  to  whitewash  her 
cabin,  a  thing  she  had  not  done  for  years.  She 
and  Uncle  Braddock  worked  at  it  by  turns. 
The  old  woman  was  too  stiff  and  rheumatic  to 


BUSINESS   IN   EARNEST.  9! 

keep  at  such  work  long  at  a  time;  but  she  was 
very  proud  of  her  whitewashing ;  and  when  she 
was  tired  of  working  at  the  inside  of  her 
cabin,  she  used  to  go  out  and  whitewash  the 
trunks  of  the  trees  around  the  house.  She  had 
seen  trees  thus  ornamented,  and  she  thought 
they  were  perfectly  beautiful. 

Kate  was  violently  opposed  to  anything  of 
this  kind,  and,  at  last,  told  Aunt  Matilda  that  if 
she  persisted  in  surrounding  her  house  with 
what  looked  like  a  forest  of  tombstones,  she, 
Kate,  would  have  to  stop  coming  there. 

So  Aunt  Matilda,  in  a  manner,  desisted. 

But  one  day  she  noticed  a  little  birch-tree, 
some  distance  from  the  house,  and  the  inclina- 
tion to  whitewash  that  little  birch  was  too 
strong  to  be  resisted. 

"He's  so  near  white,  anyway,"  she  said  to 
herself,  "  dat  it's  a  pity  not  to  finish  him." 

So  off  she  hobbled  with  a  tin  cup  full  of 
whitewash  and  a  small  brush  to  adorn  the  little 
birch-tree,  leaving  her  cabin  in  the  charge  of 
Holly  Thomas. 

Holly,  whose  whole  name  was  Hollywood 
Cemetery  Thomas,  was  a  little  black  girl,  be- 


92        WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

tween  two  and  five  years  old.  Sometimes  she 
seemed  nearly  five,  and  sometimes  not  more  than 
two.  Her  parents  intended  christening  her 
Minerva,  but  hearing  the  name  of  the  well- 
known  Hollywood  Cemetery  in  Richmond,  they 
thought  it  so  pretty  that  they  gave  it  to  their 
little  daughter,  without  the  slightest  idea,  how- 
ever, that  it  was  the  name  of  a  grave-yard. 

Holly  had  come  over  to  pay  a  morning  visit 
to  Aunt  Matilda,  and  she  had  brought  her  only 
child,  a  wooden  doll,  which  she  was  trying  to 
teach  to  walk,  by  dragging  it  head  foremost  by 
a  long  string  tied  around  its  neck. 

"  Now  den,  you  Holly,  you  stay  h'yar  and 
mind  de  house  while  I's  gone,"  said  Aunt  Matil- 
da, as  she  departed. 

"  All  yite,"  said  the  little  darkey,  and  she  sat 
down  on  the  floor  to  prepare  her  child  for  a  coat 
of  whitewash  ;  but  she  had  not  yet  succeeded  in 
convincing  the  doll  of  the  importance  of  the 
operation  when  her  attention  was  aroused  by  a 
dog  just  outside  of  the  door. 

It  was  Kate's  little  woolly  white  dog,  Blinks, 
who  often  used  to  come  to  the  cabin  with  her, 
and  who  sometimes,  when  he  got  a  chance  to 


BUSINESS   IN   EARNEST.  93 

run  away,  used  to  come  alone,  as  he  did  this 
morning. 

"  Go  'way  dar,  litty  dog,"  said  Miss  Holly ; 
"  yer  can't  come  in  ;  dere's  nobody  home.  Yun 
'long,  now,  d'  yer  y'ear !  " 

But  Blinks  either  didn't  hear  or  didn't  care, 
for  he  stuck  his  head  in  at  the  door. 

"  Go  'way,  dere  !  "  shouted  Holly.  "  Aunt 
Tillum  ain't  home.  Go  'way  now,  and  turn  bat 
in  half  an  hour.  Aunt  Tillum  '11  be  bat  den. 
Don't  yer  hear  now,  go  'way  ! 

But,  instead  of  going  away,  Blinks  trotted  in, 
as  bold  as  a  four-pound  lion. 

"  Go  'way,  go  'way !  "  screamed  Holly,  squeez- 
ing herself  up  against  the  wall  in  her  terror,  and 
then  Blinks  barked  at  her.  He  had  never  seen  a 
little  black  girl  behave  so,  in  the  whole  course  of 
his  life,  and  it  was  quite  right  in  him  to  bark  and 
let  her  know  what  he  thought  of  her  conduct. 
Then  Holly,  in  her  fright,  dropped  her  doll,  and 
when  Blinks  approached  to  examine  it,  she 
screamed  louder  and  louder,  and  Blinks  barked 
more  and  more,  and  there  was  quite  a  hubbub. 
In  the  midst  of  it  a  man  put  his  head  in  at  the 
door  of  the  cabin. 


94-        WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

He  was  a  tall  man,  with  red  hair,  and  a  red 
freckled  face,  and  a  red  bristling  moustache,  and 
big  red  hands. 

"  What's  all  this  noise  about?  "  said  he  ;  and 
when  he  saw  what  it  was,  he  came  in. 

"  Get  out  of  this,  you  little  beast !  "  said  he 
to  Blinks,  and  putting  the  toe  of  his  boot  under 
the  little  dog,  he  kicked  him  clear  out  of  the 
door  of  the  cabin.  Then  turning  to  Holly,  he 
looked  at  her  pretty  much  as  if  he  intended  to 
kick  her  out  too.  But  he  didn't.  He  put  out 
one  of  his  big  red  hands  and  said  to  her : 

"Shake  hands." 

,  Holly  obeyed  without  a  word,  and  then 
snatching  her  wooden  child  from  the  floor,  she 
darted  out  of  the  door  and  reached  the  village 
almost  as  soon  as  poor  Blinks. 

In  a  minute  or  two  Aunt  Matilda  made  her 
appearance  at  the  door.  She  had  heard  the 
barking  and  the  screaming,  and  had  come  to  see 
what  was  the  matter. 

When  she  saw  the  man,  she  exclaimed : 

"  Why,  Mah'sr  George  !     Is  dat  you?  " 

"  Yes,  it's  me,"  said  the  man.  "  Shake 
hands,  Aunt  Matilda." 


BUSINESS   IN   EARNEST.  95 

"  I  thought  you  was  down  in  Mississippi, 
Mah'sr  George,"  said  the  old  woman  ;  "  and  I 
thought  you  was  gwine  to  stay  dar." 

"  Couldn't  do  it,"  said  the  man.  "  It  didn't 
suit  me,  down  there.  Five  years  of  it  was 
enough  for  me." 

"  Enough  fur  dem,  too,  p'r'aps ! "  said  Aunt 
Matilda,  with  a  grim  chuckle. 

The  man  took  no  notice  of  her  remark,  but 
said : 

"  I  didn't  intend  to  stop  here,  but  I  heard 
such  a  barking  and  screaming  in  your  cabin,  that 
I  turned  out  of  my  way  to  see  what  the  row 
was  about.  I've  just  come  up  from  the  railroad. 
Does  old  Michaels  keep  store  here  yet  ?  " 

"  No,  he  don't,"  said  Aunt  Matilda ;  "  he's 
dead.  Mah'sr  Darby  keeps  dar  now." 

"  Is  that  so  ?  "  cried  the  man.  "  Why,  it 
was  on  old  Michaels's  account  that  I  was  sneak- 
in'  around  the  village.  Why,  I'm  mighty  glad 
I  stopped  here.  It  makes  things  different  if  old 
Michaels  isn't  about." 

"  Well,  ye  might  as  well  go  'long,"  said  Aunt 
Matilda,  who  seemed  to  be  getting  into  a  bad 
humor.  "  There's  others  who  knows  jist  as 


96        WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

much  about  yer  bad  doin's  as  Mah'sr  Michaels 
did." 

"  I  suppose  you  mean  that  meddling  hum- 
bug, John  Loudon,"  said  the  man. 

"  Now,  look  h'yar,  you  George  Mason  ? " 
cried  Aunt  Matilda,  making  one  long  step  to- 
ward the  whitewash  bucket;  "jist  you  git  out 
o'  dat  dar  door!"  and  she  seized  the  white- 
wash brush  and  gave  it  a  terrific  swash  in  the 
bucket. 

The  man  looked  at  her — he  knew  her  of 
old — and  then  he  left  the  cabin  almost  as  quickly 
as  Blinks  and  Holly  went  out  of  it. 

"  Ef  it  hadn't  been  fur  dat  little  dog,"  said 
Aunt  Matilda,  grumly,  "  he'd  a  gone  on.  Them 
little  dogs  is  always  a-doin'  mischief." 


CHAPTER   X. 
A  MEETING  ON  THE  ROAD. 

OOME  weeks  before  the  little  affair  between 
^  Blinks  and  Holly,  related  in  our  last  chapter, 
Harry  and  Kate  took  a  ride  over  to  the  railroad 
station. 

During  the  winter  Harry  had  frequently  gone 
over  on  horseback  to  attend  to  the  payments 
for  his  wood  ;  and  now  that  the  roads  were  in  fit 
condition  for  carriage  travel,  he  was  glad  to 
have  an  opportunity  to  take  the  buggy  and  give 
Kate  a  ride. 

For  some  days  previously,  Crooked  Creek 
had  been  "  up ;  "  that  is,  the  spring  rains  had 
caused  it  to  overflow,  and  all  travel  across  it  had 
been  suspended.  The  bridges  on  such  occasions 
— and  Crooked  Creek  had  a  bad  habit  of  being 
"  up  "  several  times  in  the  course  of  a  year — 
— were  covered,  and  the  lowlands  were  under 
water  for  a  considerable  distance  on  each  side 


98        WHAT  MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

of  the  stream.  There  were  so  few  boats  on  the 
creek,  and  the  current,  in  time  of  freshets,  was 
so  strong,  that  ferriage  was  seldom  thought  of. 
In  consequence  of  this  state  of  affairs  Harry  had 
not  heard  from  his  wood-cutters  for  more  than 
a  week,  as  they  had  not  been  able  to  cross  the 
creek  to  their  homes.  It  was,  therefore,  as  much 
to  see  how  they  were  getting  along  as  to  attend 
to  financial  matters  that  he  took  this  trip. 

It  was  a  fine,  bright  day  in  very  early  spring, 
and  old  Selim  trotted  on  quite  gayly.  Before 
very  long  they  overtook  Miles  Jackson,  jogging 
along  on  a  little  bay  horse. 

Miles  was  a  black  man,  very  sober  and  sedate, 
who  for  years  had  carried  the  mail  twice  a  week 
from  a  station  farther  up  the  railroad  to  the  vil- 
lage. But  he  was  not  a  mail-carrier  now.  His 
employer,  a  white  man,  who  had  the  contract  for 
carrying  the  mails,  had  also  gone  into  another 
business  which  involved  letter-carrying. 

A  few  miles  back  from  the  village  of  Ake- 
ville,  where  the  Loudens  lived,  was  a  mica  mine, 
which  had  recently  been  bought,  and  was  now 
worked  by  a  company  from  the  North.  This 
mica  (the  semi-transparent  substance  that  is  set 


A   MEETING   ON   THE   ROAD.  99 

into  stove  doors)  proved  to  be  very  plentiful 
and  valuable,  and  the  company  had  a  great  deal 
of  business  on  their  hands.  It  was  frequently 
necessary  to  send  messages  and  letters  to  the 
North,  and  these  were  always  carried  over  to  the 
station  on  the  other  side  of  Crooked  Creek, 
where  there  was  a  daily  mail  and  a  telegraph 
office.  The  contract  to  carry  these  letters  and 
messages  to  and  from  the  mines  had  been  given 
to  Miles's  employer,  and  the  steady  negro  man 
had  been  taken  off  the  mail-route  to  attend  to 
this  new  business. 

"  Well,  Miles,"  said  Harry,  as  he  overtook 
him.  "  How  do  you  like  riding  on  this  road  ?  " 

"  How  d'  y',  Mah'sr  Harry  ?  How  d'  y', 
Miss  Kate  ?  "  said  the  colored  man,  touching  his 
hat  and  riding  up  on  the  side  of  the  road  to  let 
them  pass.  "  I  do'  know  how  I  likes  it  yit, 
Mah'sr  Harry.  Don't  seem  'xactly  nat'ral  after 
ridin'  de  oder  road  so  long  !  ", 

"  You  have  a  pretty  big  letter-bag  there," 
said  Harry. 

"  Dat's  so,"  said  Miles  ;  "but  'taint  dis  big 
ebery  day.  Sence  de  creek's  been  up  I  haint 


IOO   WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

been  able  to  git  across,  and  dere's  piles  o'  letters 
to  go  ober  to-day." 

"  It  must  make  it  rather  bad  for  the  com- 
pany when  the  creek  rises  in  this  way,"  said 
Harry. 

"  Dat's  so,"  answered  Miles.  "  Dey  gits  in  a 
heap  o'  trubble  when  dey  can't  send  dere  letters 
and  git  'em.  Though  'taint  so  many  letters 
dey  sends  as  telegraphs." 

"  It's  a  pity  they  couldn't  have  had  their 
mine  on  the  other  side,"  remarked  Kate. 

"  Dat's  so,  Miss  Kate,"  said  Miles,  gravely. 
"  I  reckon  dey  didn't  know  about  de  creek's 
gittin'  up  so  often,  or  dey'd  dug  dere  mine  on 
de  oder  side." 

Harry  and  Kate  laughed  and  drove  on. 

They  soon  reached  Mr.  Loudon's  woods,  but 
found  no  wood-cutters. 

When  they  arrived  at  the  station  they  saw 
Dick  Ford  and  John  Walker  on  the  store- 
porch. 

Harry  soon  discovered  that  no  wood  had 
been  cut  for  several  days,  because  the  creek  was 
up. 


A  MEETING  ON  THE  ROAD.  IOI 

"What  had  that  to  do  with  it?"  asked 
Harry. 

"  Why,  you  see,  Mah'sr  Harry,"  said  John 
Walker,  "  de  creek  was  mighty  high,  and  dere 
was  no  knowin'  how  things  ud  turn  out.  So  we 
thought  we'd  jist  wait  and  see."  * 

"  So  you've  been- here  all  the  time  ?  " 

"Yes,  sir;  been  h'yar  all  de  time.  Couldn't 
go  home,  you  know." 

Harry  was  very  sorry  to  hear  of  this  lost 
time,  for  he  knew  that  his  wood-cutting  would 
come  to  an  end  as  soon  as  the  season  was  suffi- 
ciently advanced  to  give  the  men  an  opportu- 
nity of  hiring  themselves  for  farm-work  ;  but  it 
was  of  no  use  to  talk  any  more  about  it ;  and  so, 
after  depositing  Kate  at  the  post-office,  where 
the  post-mistress,  who  knew  her  well,  gave  her 
a  nice  little  "  snack  "  of  buttermilk,  cold  fried 
chicken,  and  "  light-bread,"  he  went  to  .the  sta- 
tion and  transacted  his  business.  He  had  not 
been  there  for  some  weeks,  and  he  found  quite 
a  satisfactory  sum  of  money  due  him,  in  spite 
of  the  holiday  his  men  had  taken.  He  then 
arranged  with  Dick  and  John  to  work  on  for  a 
week  or  two  longer — if  "  nothing  happened  ;  " 


IO2      WHAT  MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN  EXPECTED. 

and  after  attending  to  some  commissions  for  the 
family,  he  and  Kate  set  out  for  home. 

But  nothing  they  had  done  that  day  was  of 
so  much  importance  as  their  meeting  with  Miles 
'turned  out  to  be. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

ROB. 

T)  LINKS  was  not  the  only  dog  on  the  Lou- 
•*-'  don  place.  There  was  another  one,  a 
much  larger  fellow,  named  Rob. 

Rob  was  a  big  puppy,  in  the  first  place,  and 
then  he  grew  up  to  be  a  tall,  long-legged  dog, 
who  was  not  only  very  fond  of  Harry  and  Kate, 
but  of  almost  everybody  else.  In  time  he  filled 
out  and  became  rather  more  shapely,  but  he 
was  always  an  ungainly  dog — "  too  big  for  his 
size,"  as  Harry  put  it. 

It  was  supposed  that  Rob  was  partly  blood- 
hound, but  how  much  of  him  was  bloodhound  it 
would  have  been  very  difficult  so  say.  Kate 
thought  it  was  only  his  ears.  They  resembled 
the  ears  of  a  picture  of  a  beautiful  African  blood- 
hound that  she  had  in  a  book.  At  all  events  Rob 
showed  no  signs  of  any  fighting  ancestry.  He 
was  as  gentle  as  a  calf.  Even  Blinks  was  a  bet- 


IO4      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

• 

ter  watch-dog.  But  then,  Rob  was  only  a  year 
old,  and  he  might  improve  in  time. 

But,  in  spite  of  his  general  inutility,  Rob  was 
a  capital  companion  on  a  country  ramble. 

And  so  it  happened,  one  bright  day  toward 
the  close  of  April,  that  he  and  Harry  and  Kate 
went  out  together  into  the  woods,  beyond  Aunt 
Matilda's  cabin.  Kate's  objects  in  taking  the 
walk  were  wild  flowers  and  general  spring  inves- 
tigations into  the  condition  of  the  woods ;  but 
Harry  had  an  eye  to  business,  although  to  hear 
him  talk  you  would  have  supposed  that  he 
thought  as  much  about  ferns  and  flowers  as 
Kate  did. 

Harry  had  an  idea  that  it  might  possibly  be 
a  good  thing  to  hire  negroes  that  year  to  pick 
sumac  for  him.  He  was  not  certain  that  he 
could  make  it  pay,  but  it  was  on  his  mind  to 
such  a  degree  that  he  took  a  great  interest  in 
the  sumac-bushes,  and  hunted  about  the  edges 
of  the  woods,  where  the  bushes  were  generally 
found,  to  see  what  was  the  prospect  for  a  large 
crop  of  leaves  that  year. 

They  were  in  the  woods,  about  a  mile  from 
Aunt  Matilda's  cabin,  and  not  very  far  from  a 


ROB.  105 

road,  when  they  separated  for  a  short  time. 
Harry  went  on  ahead,  continuing  his  investiga- 
tions, while  Kate  remained  in  a  little  open  glade, 
where  she  found  some  flowers  that  she  deter- 
mined to  dig  up  by  the  roots  and  transplant  into 
her  garden  at  home. 

While  she  was  at  work  she  heard  a  heavy 
step  behind  her,  and  looking  up,  she  saw  a  tall 
man  standing  by  her.  He  had  red  hair,  a  red 
face,  a  red  bristling  moustache,  and  big  red 
hands. 

"  How  d'ye  do  ?  "  said  the  man. 

Kate  stood  up,  with  the  plants,  which  she 
had  just  succeeded  in  getting  out  of  the  ground, 
in  her  apron. 

"  Good  morning,  sir,"  said  she. 

The  man  looked  at  her  from  head  to  foot, 
and  then  he  said,  "  Shake  hands !"  holding  out 
his  big  red  hand. 

But  Kate  did  not  offer  to  take  it. 

"  Didn't  you  hear  me  ?  "  said  he.  "  I  said, 
'  Shake  hands.'  ' 

"  I  heard  you,"  said  Kate. 

"  Well,  why  don't  you  do  it,  then  ?  " 
5* 


IO6      WHAT  MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

Kate  did  not  answer,  and  the  man  repeated 
his  question. 

"Well,  then,  if  I  must  tell  you,"  said  she; 
"  in  the  first  place,  I  don't  know  you ;  and, 
then,  I'd  rather  not  shake  hands  with  you,  any- 
way, because  your  hands  are  so  dirty." 

This  might  not  have  been  very  polite  in 
Kate,  but  she  was  a  straightforward  girl,  and  the 
man's  hands  were  very  dirty  indeed,  although 
water  was  to  be  had  in  such  abundance. 

"  What's  your  name  ?  "  said  the  man,  with 
his  face  considerably  redder  than  before. 

"  Kate  Loudon,"  said  the  girl. 

"  Oh,  ho  !  Loudon,  is  it  ?  Well,  Kate  Lou- 
don,"if  my  hand's  too  dirty  to  shake,  you'll  find 
it  isn't  too  dirty  to  box  your  ears." 

Kate  turned  pale  and  shrank  back  against  a 
tree.  She  gave  a  hurried  glance  into  the  woods, 
and  then  she  called  out,  as  loudly  as  she  could : 
"  Harry!  " 

The  man,  who  had  made  a  step  toward  her, 
now  stopped  and  looked  around,  as  if  he  would 
like  to  know  who  Harry  was,  before  going  any 
further. 


ROB.  107 

Just  then,  Harry,  who  had  heard  Kate's  call, 
came  running  up. 

When  the  man  saw  him  he  seemed  relieved, 
and  a  curious  smile  stretched  itself  beneath  his1 
bristling  red  moustache. 

"  What's  the  matter?  "  cried  Harry. 

"  Oh,  Harry  ! "  Kate  exclaimed,  as  she  ran 
to  him. 

"  Matter  ?  "  said  the  man.  "  The  matter's 
this  :  I'm  going  to  box  her  ears." 

"  Whose  ears  ?  " 

"  That  girl's,"  replied  the  red-faced  man, 
moving  toward  Kate. 

"  My  sister !     Not  much  !  " 

And  Harry  stepped  between  Kate  and  the 
man. 

The  man  stood  and  looked  at  him,  and  he 
looked  very  angrily,  too. 

But  Harry  stood  bravely  before  his  sister. 
His  face  was  flushed  and  his  breath  came  quickly, 
though  he  was  not  frightened,  not  a  whit ! 

And  yet  there  was  absolutely  nothing  that 
he  could  do.  He  had  not  his  gun  with  him ; 
he  had  not  even  a  stick  in  his  hand,  and  a  stick 
would  have  been  of  little  use  against  such  a 


IO8      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

strong  man  as  that,  who  could  have  taken  Harry 
in  his  big  red  hands  and  have  thrown  him  over 
the  highest  fence  in  the  county. 

But  for  all  that,  the  boy  stood  boldly  up 
before  his  sister. 

The  man  looked  at  him  without  a  word,  and 
then  he  stepped  aside  toward  a  small  dogwood- 
bush. 

For  an  instant,  Harry  thought  that  they 
might  run  away  ;  but  it  was  only  for  an  instant. 
That  long-legged  man  could  catch  them  before 
they  had  gone  a  dozen  yards — at  least  he 
could  catch  Kate. 

The  man  took  out  a  knife  and  cut  a  long  and 
tolerably  thick  switch  from  the  bush.  Then  he 
cut  off  the  smaller  end  and  began  to  trim  away 
the  twigs  and  leaves. 

While  doing  this  he  looked  at  Harry,  and 
said  : 

"  I  think  I'll  take  you  first." 

Kate's  heart  almost  stopped  beating  when 
she  heard  this,  and  Harry  turned  pale  ;  but  still 
the  brave  boy  stood  before  his  sister  as  stoutly 
as  ever. 

Kate  tried  to  call  for  help,  but  she  had  no 


ROE.  ICXJI 

voice.  What  could  she  do  ?  A  boxing  on  the 
ears  was  nothing,  she  now  thought ;  she  wished 
she  had  not  called  out,  for  it  was  evident  that 
Harry  was  going  to  get  a  terrible  whipping. 

She  could  not  bear  it !     Her  dear  brother ! 

She  trembled  so  much  that  she  could  not 
stand,  and  she  sank  down  on  her  knees.  Rob, 
the  dog,  who  had  been  lying  near  by,  snapping 
at  flies,  all  this  time,  now  came  up  to  comfort 
her. 

"  Oh,  Rob  ! "  she  whispered,  "  I  wish  you 
were  a  cross  dog." 

And  Rob  wagged  his  tail  and  lay  down  by  her. 

"  I  wonder,"  she  thought  to  herself,  "  oh  !  I 
wonder  if  any  one  could  make  him  bite." 

"  Rob  !  "  she  whispered  in  the  dog's  ear, 
keeping  her  eyes  fixed  on  the  man,  who  had 
now  nearly  finished  trimming  his  stick.  "  Rob  ! 
hiss-s-s-s !  "  and  she  patted  his  back. 

Rob  seemed  to  listen  very  attentively. 

"  Hiss-s-s !  "  she  whispered  again,  her  heart 
beating  quick  and  hard. 

Rob  now  raised  his  head,  his  big  body  began 
to  quiver,  and  the  hair  on  his  back  gradually 
rose  on  end. 


IIO      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

"Hiss  !  Rob  !  Rob  !  "  whispered  Kate. 

The  man  had  shut  up  his  knife,  and  was  put- 
ting it  in  his  pocket.  He  took  the  stick  in  his 
right  hand. 

All  now  depended  on  Rob. 

"  Oh  !  will  he  ?  "  thought  Kate,  and  then  she 
sprang  to  her  feet  and  clapped  her  hands. 

"  Catch  him,  Rob  !  "  she  screamed.  "  Catch 
him!" 

With  a  rush,  Rob  hurled  himself  full  at  the 
breast  of  the  man,  and  the  tall  fellow  went  over 
backward,  just  like  a  ten-pin. 

Then  he  was  up  and  out  into  the  road,  Rob 
after  him  ! 

You  ought  to  have  seen  the  gravel  fly ! 

Harry  and  Kate  ran  out  into  the  road  and 
cheered  and  shouted.  Away  went  the  man, 
and  away  went  the  dog. 

Up  the  road,  into  the  brush,  out  again,  and 
then  into  a  field,  down  a  hill,  nip  and  tuck !  At 
Tom  Riley's  fence,  Rob  got  him  by  the  leg,  but 
the  trowsers  were  old  and  the  piece  came  out : 
and  then  the  man  dashed  into  Riley's  old  to- 
bacco barn,  and  slammed  the  door  almost  on  the 
dog's  nose. 


ROB.  Ill 

Rob  ran  around  the  house  to  see  if  there 
was  an  open  window,  and  finding  none,  he  went 
back  to  the  door  and  lay  down  to  wait. 

Harry  and  Kate  ran  home  as  fast  as  they 
could,  and  after  a  while  Rob  came  too.  He  had 
waited  a  reasonable  time  at  the  door  of  the  barn, 
but  the  man  had  not  come  out. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
TONY  ON  THE  WAR-PATH. 

HE  did  it  all,"  said  Harry,  when  they  had 
told  the  tale  to  half  the  village,  on  the 
store-porch. 

"  I !  "  exclaimed  Kate.     "  Rob,  you  mean." 

"That's  a  good  dog,"  said  'Mr.  Darby,  the 
storekeeper ;  "  what'll  you  take  for  him  ?  " 

"  Not  for  sale,"  said  Harry. 

"Rob's  all  very  well,"  remarked  Tony  Kirk; 
"  but  it  won't  do  to  have  a  feller  like  that  in  the 
woods,  a  fright'nin'  the  children.  I'd  like  to 
know  who  he  is." 

Just  at  this  moment  Uncle  Braddock  made 
his  appearance,  hurrying  along  much  faster  than 
he  usually  walked,  with  his  eyes  and  teeth  glis- 
tening in  the  sunshine. 

"  I  seed  him !  "  he  cried,  as  soon  as  he  came 
up. 

"  Who'd  you  see  ?  "  cried  several  persons. 


TONY   ON  THE  WAR-PATH.  113 

"  Oh !  I  seed  de  dog  after  him,  and  I  come 
along  as  fas'  as  I  could,  but  couldn't  come  very 
fas'.  De  ole  wrapper  cotch  de  wind.'' 

"  Who  was  it  ?  "  asked  Tony. 

"  I  seed  him  a-runnin'.  Bress  my  soul !  de 
dog  like  to  got  him  !  " 

"But  who  was  he,  Uncle  Braddock?"  said 
Mr.  Loudon,  who  had  just  reached  the  store 
from  his  house,  where  Kate,  who  had  run  home, 
had  told  the  story.  "  Do  you  know  him  ?  " 

"Know  him?  Reckon  I  does?"  said  Uncle 
Braddock,  "  an'  de  dog  ud  a  knowed  him  too,  ef 
he'd  a  cotched  him  !  Dat's  so,  Mah'sr  John." 

"  Well,  tell  us  his  name,  if  you  know  him," 
said  Mr.  Darby. 

"  Ob  course,  I  knows  him,"  said  Uncle  Brad- 
dock.  "  I'se  done  knowed  him  fur  twenty  or 
fifty  years.  He's  George  Mason." 

The  announcement  of  this  name  caused  quite 
a  sensation  in  the  party. 

"  I  thought  he  was  down  in  Mississippi," 
said  one  man. 

"  So  he  was,  I  reckons,"  said  Uncle  Brad- 
dock,  "  but  he's  done  come  back  now.  I'se  seed 
him  afore  to-day,  and  Aunt  Matilda's  seed  him, 


114      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

too.  Yah,  ha  !  Dat  dere  dog  come  mighty  nigh 
cotchin'  him ! " 

George  Mason  had  been  quite  a  noted  cha- 
acter  in  that  neighborhood  five  or  six  years 
before.  He  belonged  to  a  good  family,  but  was 
of  a  lawless  disposition  and  was  generally  dis- 
liked by  the  decent  people  of  the  county. 
Just  before  he  left  for  the  extreme  Southern 
States,  it  was  discovered  that  he  had  been  con- 
cerned in  a  series  of  horse-thefts,  for  which  he 
would  have  been  arrested  had  he  not  taken  his 
departure  from  the  State. 

Few  people,  excepting  Mr.  Loudon  and  one 
or  two  others,  knew  the  extent  of  his  misdemean- 
ors ;  and  out  of  regard  to  his  family,  these  had 
not  been  made  public.  But  he  had  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  a  wild,  disorderly  man,  and  now 
that  it  was  known  that  he  had  contemplated 
boxing  Kate  Loudon 's  ears  and  whipping  Harry, 
the  indignation  was  very  great. 

Harry  and  Kate  were  favorites  with  every- 
body— white  and  black. 

"  I  tell  ye  what  I'm  goin'  to  do,"  said  Tony 
Kirk  ;  "  I'm  goin'  after  that  feller." 


TONY   ON  THE  WAR-PATH.  115 

At  this,  half  a  dozen  men  offered  to  go  along 
with  Tony. 

"  What  will  you  do,  if  you  find  him  ?  "  asked 
Mr.  Loudon. 

"  That  depends  on  circumstances,"  replied 
Tony. 

"  I  am  willing  to  have  you  go,"  said  Mr. 
Loudon,  who  was  a  magistrate  and  a  gentleman 
of  much  influence  in  the  village,  "  on  condition 
that  if  you  find  him  you  offer  him  no  violence. 
Tell  him  to  leave  the  county,  and  say  to  him, 
from  me,  that  if  he  is  found  here  again  he  shall 
be  arrested." 

"  All  right,"  said  Tony  ;  and  he  proceeded 
to  make  up  his  party. 

There  were  plenty  of  volunteers ;  and  for 
a  while  it  was  thought  that  Uncle  Braddock  in- 
tended to  offer  to  go.  But,  if  so,  he  must  have 
changed  his  mind,  for  he  soon  left  the  vil- 
lage and  went  over  to  Aunt  Matilda's  and  had 
a  good  talk  with  her.  The  old  woman  was 
furiously  angry  when  she  heard  of  the  affair. 

"  I  wish  I'd  been  a  little  quicker,"  she  said, 
"  and  dere  wouldn't  a  been  a  red  spot  on 
him." 


Il6      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

Uncle  Braddock  didn't  know  exactly  what 
she  meant ;  but  he  wished  so,  too. 

Tony  didn't  want  a  large  party.  He  chose 
four  men  who  could  be  depended  upon,  and  they 
started  out  that  evening. 

It  was  evident  that  Mason  knew  how  to  keep 
himself  out  of  sight,  for  he  had  been  in  the 
vicinity  a  week  or  more — as  Tony^  discovered, 
after  a  visit  to  Aunt  Matilda — and  no  white  per- 
son had  seen  him. 

But  Tony  thought  he  knew  the  country 
quite  as  well  as  George  Mason  did,  and  he  felt 
sure  he  should  find  him. 

His  party  searched  the  vicinity  quite  tho- 
roughly that  night,  starting  from  Tom  Riley's 
tobacco  barn  ;  but  they  saw  nothing  of  their 
man ;  and  in  the  morning  they  made  the  dis- 
covery that  Mason  had  borrowed  one  of  Riley's 
horses,  without  the  knowledge  of  its  owner,  and 
had  gone  off,  north  of  the  mica  mine.  Some 
negroes  had  seen  him  riding  away. 

So  Tony  and  his  men  took  horses  and  rode 
away  after  him.  Each  of  them  carried  his  gun, 
for  they  did  not  know  in  what  company  they 
might  find  Mason.  A  man  who  steals  horses  is 


TONY  ON  THE   WAR-PATH. 

generally  considered,  especially  in  the  country, 
to  be  wicked  enough  to  do  anything. 

At  a  little  place  called  Jordan's  cross-roads, 
they  were  sure  they  had  come  upon  him.  Tom 
Riley's  horse  was  found  at  the  blacksmith's  shop 
at  the  cross-roads,  and  the  blacksmith  said  that 
he  had  been  left  there  to  have  a  shoe  put  on, 
and  that  the  man  who  had  ridden  him  had  gone 
on  over  the  fields  toward  a  house  on  the  edge 
of  the  woods,  about  a  mile  away. 

So  Tony  and  his  men  rode  up  to  within 
a  half-mile  of  the  house,  and  then  they  dis- 
mounted, tied  their  horses,  and  proceeded  on 
foot.  They  kept,  as  far  as  possible,  under 
cover  of  the  tall  weeds  and  bushes,  and  hurried 
along  silently  and  in  single  file,  Tony  in  the  lead. 
Thus  they  soon  reached  the  house,  when  they 
quietly  surrounded  it. 

But  George  Mason  played  them  a  pretty 
trick. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 
COUSIN  MARIA. 

AFTER  posting  one  of  his  men  on  each  side 
of  the  house,  which  stood  on  the  edge  of  a 
field,  without  any  fence  around  it,  Tony  Kirk 
stepped  up  to  the  front  door  and  knocked.  The 
door  was  quickly  opened  by  a  woman. 

"  Why,  Cousin  Maria,"  said  Tony,  "  is  this 
you?" 

"Certainly  it's  me,  Anthony,"  said  the 
woman  ;  "  who  else  should  it  be  ?  " 

Cousin  Maria  was  a  tall  woman,  dressed  in 
black.  She  had  gray  hair  and  wore  spectacles. 
She  seemed  very  glad  to  see  Tony,  and  shook 
hands  with  him  warmly. 

"  I  didn't  know  you  lived  here,"  said  Tony. 

"  Well,  I  don't  live  here,  exactly,"  said 
Cousin  Maria ;  "  but  come  in  and  sit  awhile. 
You've  been  a-huntin',  have  you  ?  " 

"  Well,  yes,"  said  Tony,  "  I  am  a-huntin'." 


COUSIN   MARIA. 

Without  mentioning  that  he  had  some  friends 
outside,  Tony  went  in  and  sat  down  to  talk  with 
Cousin  Maria.  The  man  in  front  of  the  house 
had  stepped  to  one  side  when  the  door  opened, 
and  the  others  were  out  of  sight,  of  course. 

Tony  entered  a  small  sitting-room,  into  which 
the  front  door  opened,  and  took  a  seat  by  Cousin 
Maria. 

"  You  see,"  said  she,  "  old  Billy  Simpson  let 
this  house  fur  a  hundred  dollars — there's  eighty 
acres  with  it — to  Sarah  Ann  Hemphill  and  her 
husband  ;  and  he's  gone  to  Richmond  to  git 
stock  for  a  wheelwright's  shop.  That's  his  trade, 
you  know  ;  and  they're  goin'  to  have  the  shop 
over  there  in  the  wagon-house,  that  can  be  fixed 
up  easy  enough  ef  Sam  Hemphill  chooses  to 
work  at  it,  which  I  don't  believe  he  will ;  but  he 
can  work,  ef  he  will,  and  this  is  just  the  place  for 
a  wheelwright's  shop,  ef  the  right  man  goes  into 
the  business ;  and  they  sold  their  two  cows — 
keeping  only  the  red-and-white  heifer.  I  guess 
you  remember  that  heifer ;  they  got  her  of  old 
Joe  Sanders,  on  the  Creek.  And  they  sold  one 
of  their  horses — the  sorrel — and  a  mule  ;  they 
hadn't  no  use  fur  'em  here,  fur  the  land's  not 


120      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

worth  much,  and  hasn't  seen  no  guano  nor 
nothin'  fur  three  or  four  years ;  and  the  money 
they  got  was  enough  to  start  a  mighty  good 
cooper-shop,  ef  Sam  don't  spend  it  all,  or  most 
of  it,  in  Richmond,  which  I  think  he  will ;  and 
of  course,  he  being  away,  Sarah  Ann  wanted  to 
go  to  her  mother's,  and  she  got  herself  ready 
and  took  them  four  children — and  I  pity  the 
old  lady,  fur  Sam's  children  never  had  no  bringin' 
up.  I  disremember  how  old  Tommy  is,  but  it 
isn't  over  eight,  and  just  as  noisy  as  ef  he  wasn't 
the  oldest.  And  so  I  come  here  to  take  care 
of  the  place  ;  but  I  can't  stay  no  longer  than 
Tuesday  fortnight,  as  I  told  Sarah  Ann,  fur  I've 
got  to  go  to  Betsey  Cropper's  then  to  help  her 
with  her  spinnin' ;  and  there's  my  own  things 
— seven  pounds  of  wool  to  spin  fur  Truly  Mat- 
therses  people,  besides  two  bushel  baskets,  easy, 
of  carpet-rags  to  sew,  and  I  want  'em  done  by 
the  time  Miss  Jane  gits  her  loom  empty,  or  I'll 
git  no  weavin'  done  this  year,  and  what  do  you 
think?  I've  had  another  visitor  to-day,  and 
your  comin' right  afterwards  kind  o'  struck  me' 
as  mighty  queer,  both  bein'  Akeville  people,  so 
to  speak,  tho'  it's  been  a  long  day  since  he's 


COUSIN   MARIA.  121 

been  there,  and  you'll  never  guess  who  it  was, 
fur  it  was  George  Mason." 

And  she  stopped  and  wiped  her  face  with 
her  calico  apron. 

"  So  George  Mason  was  here,  was  he  ?  "  said 
Tony.  "  Where  is  he  now?" 

"  Oh !  he's  gone,"  replied  Cousin  Maria. 
"  It  wasn't  more  'n  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  before 
you  came  in,  and  he  was  a-sittin'  here  talking 
about  ole  times — he's  rougher  than  he  was, 
guess  he  didn't  learn  no  good  down  there  in 
Mississippi — when  all  ov  a  sudden  he  got  up  an' 
took  his  hat  and  walked  off.  Well,  that  was  jist 
like  George  Mason.  He  never  had  much  man- 
ners, and  would  always  just  as  soon  go  off  with- 
out biddin'  a  body  good-by  as  not." 

"  You  didn't  notice  which  way  he  went,  did 
you?"  asked  Tony, 

"  Yes,  I  did,"  said  Cousin  Maria  ;  "  he  went 
out  o'  the  back  door,  and  along  the  edge  of  the 
woods,  and  he  was  soon  out  of  sight,  fur  George 
has  got  long  legs,  as  you  well  know ;  and  the 
last  I  saw  of  him  was  just  out  there  by  that 
fence.  And  if  there  isn't  Jim  Anderson  !  Come 
in,  Jim  ;  what  are  you  doin'  standin'  out  there  ?  " 
6 


122      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

So  she  went  to  the  window  to  call  Jim  An- 
derson, and  Tony  stepped  to  the  door  and 
whistled  for  the  other  men,  so  that  when  Cousin 
Maria  came  to  the  door  she  saw  not  only  Jim 
Anderson,  but  Thomas  Campbell  and  Captain 
Bob  Winters  and  Doctor  Price's  son  Brinsley. 

"  Well,  upon  my  word  an'  honor !  "  said 
Cousin  Maria,  lifting  up  both  her  hands. 

"  Come  along,  boys,"  said  Tony,  starting  off 
toward  the  woods.  "  We've  got  no  time  to 
lose.  Good-by,  Cousin  Maria." 

"  Good-by,  Cousin  Maria,"  said  each  of  the 
other  men,  as  the  party  hurried  away. 

Cousin  Maria  did  not  answer  a  word.     She 

• 

sat  right  down  on  the  door-step  and  took  off  her 
spectacles.  She  rubbed  them  with  her  apron, 
and  then  put  them  on  again.  But  there  was  no 
mistake.  There  were  the  men.  If  she  had  seen 
four  ghosts  she  could  not  have  been  more  aston- 
ished. 

Tony  did  not  for  a  moment  doubt  Cousin 
Maria's  word  when  she  told  him  that  George 
Mason  had  gone  away.  She  never  told  a  lie. 
The  only  trouble  with  her  was  that  she  told  too 
much  truth. 


COUSIN   MARIA.  123 

In  about  an  hour  and  a  half  the  five  men  re- 
turned to  the  place  where  they  had  left  their 
horses.  They  had  found  no  trace  of  George 
Mason. 

When  they  reached  the  clump  of  trees,  there 
were  no  horses  there  ! 

They  looked  at  each  other  with  blank  faces ! 

"  He's  got  our  horses  !  "  said  Jim  Anderson, 
when  his  consternation  allowed  him  to  speak. 

"  Yes,"  said  Tony,  "  and  sarved  us  right. 
We  oughter  left  one  man  here  to  take  care  uv 
'em,  knowin'  George  Mason  as  we  do." 

"  I  had  an  idea,"  said  Dr.  Price's  son  Brins- 
ley,  "  that  we  should  have  done  something  of 
that  kind." 

"  Idees  ain't  no  good,"  said  Tony  with  a 
grunt,  as  he  marched  off  toward  the  black- 
smith's shop  at  Jordan's  cross-roads. 

The  blacksmith  had  seen  nothing  of  Mason 
or  the  horses,  but  Tom  Riley's  horse  was  still 
there  ;  and  as  the  members  of  the  party  were  all 
well  known  to  the  blacksmith,  he  allowed  them 
to  take  the  animal  to  its  owner.  So  the  five 
men  rode  the  one  horse  back  to  Akeville  ;  not 
all  riding  at  once,  but  one  at  a  time. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
HARRY'S  GRAND  SCHEME. 

THIS  wholesale  appropriation  of  horses 
caused,  of  course,  a  great  commotion  in 
the  vicinity  of  Akeville,  and  half  the  male  popula- 
tion turned  out  the  next  day  in  search  of  George 
Mason  and  the  five  horses. 

Even  Harry  was  infected  with  the  general 
excitement,  and,  mounted  on  old  Selim,  he  rode 
away  after  dinner  (there  was  no  school  that 
afternoon)  to  see  if  he  could  find  any  one  who 
had  heard  anything.  There  ought  to  be  news, 
for  the  men  had  been  away  all  the  morn- 
ing. 

About  two  miles  from  the  village,  the  road 
on  which  Harry  was  riding  forked,  and  not 
knowing  that  the  party  which  had  started  off  in 
that  direction  had  taken  the  road  which  ran  to 
the  northeast,  as  being  the  direction  in  which  a 
man  would  probably  go,  if  he  wanted  to  get 


HARRY'S  GRAND  SCHEME.  125 

away  safely  with  five  stolen  horses,  Harry  kept 
straight  on. 

The  road  was  lonely  and  uninteresting.  On 
one  side  was  a  wood  of  "  old-field  pines  " — pines 
of  recent  growth  and  little  value,  that  spring  up 
on  the  old  abandoned  tobacco  fields — and  on  the 
other  a  stretch  of  underbrush,  with  here  and 
there  a  tree  of  tolerable  size,  but  from  which 
almost  all  the  valuable  timber  had  been  cut. 

Selim  was  inclined  to  take  things  leisurely, 
and  Harry  gradually  allowed  him  to  slacken  his 
pace  into  a  walk,  and  even  occasionally  to  stop 
and  lower  his  head  to  take  a  bite  from  some  par- 
ticularly tempting  bunch  of  grass  by  the  side  of 
the  road. 

The  fact  was,  Harry  was  thinking.  He  had 
entirely  forgotten  the  five  horses  and  everything 
concerning  them,  and  was  deeply  cogitating  a 
plan  which,  in  an  exceedingly  crude  shape,  had 
been  In  his  mind  ever  since  he  had  met  old 
Miles  on  the  road  to  the  railroad. 

What  he  wished  to  devise  was  some  good 
plan  to  prevent  the  interruption,  so  often  caused 
by  the  rising  of  Crooked  Creek,  of  communica- 
tion between  the  mica  mine,  belonging  to  the 


126      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

New  York  company,  and  the  station  at  Heter- 
town. 

Tf  he  could  do  this,  he  thought  he  could  make 
some  money  by  it  ;  and  it  was,  as  we  all  know, 
very  necessary  for  him,  or  at  least  for  Aunt  Ma- 
tilda, that  he  should  make  money. 

It  was  of  no  use  to  think  of  a  bridge.  There 
were  bridges  already,  and  when  the  creek  was 
"  up  "  you  could  scarcely  see  them. 

A  bridge  that  would  be  high  enough  and 
long  enough  would  be  very  costly,  and  it 
would  be  an  undertaking  with  which  Harry 
could  not  concern  himself,  no  matter  what  it 
might  cost. 

A  ferry  was  unadvisable,  for  the  stream  was 
too  rapid  and  dangerous  in  time  of  freshets. 

There  was  nothing  that  was  really  reliable 
and  worthy  of  being  seriously  thought  of  but  a 
telegraph  line.  This  Harry  believed  to  be 
feasible. 

He  did  not  think  it  would  cost  very  much. 
If  this  telegraph  line  only  extended  across  the 
creek,  not  more  than  half  a  mile  of  wire,  at  the 
utmost,  would  be  required. 

Nothing    need    be  expended    for    poles,  as 


HARRY'S  GRAND  SCHEME.  127 

there  were  tall  pine-trees  on  each  side  of  the 
creek  that  would  support  the  wire  ;  and  there 
were  two  cabins,  conveniently  situated,  in  which 
the  instruments  could  be  placed. 

Harry  had  thoroughly  considered  all  these 
matters,  having  been  down  to  the  creek  several 
times  on  purpose  to  take  observations. 

The  procuring  of  the  telegraphic  instruments, 
however,  and  the  necessity  of  having  an  operator 
on  the  other  side,  presented  difficulties  not  easy 
to  surmount. 

But  Harry  did  not  despair. 

To  be  sure  the  machines  would  cost  money, 
and  so  would  the  wire,  insulators,  etc.,  but  then 
the  mica  company  would  surely  be  willing  to 
pay  a  good  price  to  have  their  messages  trans- 
mitted at  times  when  otherwise  they  would  have 
to  send  a  man  twenty  miles  to  a  telegraphic 
station. 

So  if  the  money  could  be  raised  it  would 
pay  to  do  it— at  least  if  the  calculations,  with 
which  Harry  and  Kate  had  been  busy  for  days, 
should  prove  to  be  correct. 

About  the  operator  on  the  other  side,  Harry 
scarcely  knew  what  to  think.  If  it  were  necessary 


128      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

to  hire  any  one,  that  would  eat  terribly  into  the 
profits. 

Something  economical  must  be  devised  for 
this  part  of  the  plan. 

As  to  the  operator  on  the  Akeville  side  of 
the  creek,  Harry  intended  to  fill  that  position 
himself.  He  had  been  interested  in  telegraphy 
for  a  year  or  two.  He  understood  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  system,  and  had  had  the  opportunity 
afforded  him  by  the  operator  at  Hetertown  of 
learning  to  send  messages  and  to  read  tele- 
graphic hieroglyphics.  He  could  not  understand 
what  words  had  come  over  the  wires,  simply  by 
listening  to  the  clicking  of  the  instrument — an 
accomplishment  of  all  expert  telegraphers — but 
he  thought  he  could  do  quite  well  enough  if  he 
could  read  the  marks  on  the  paper  slips,  and 
there  was  no  knowing  to  what  proficiency  he 
might  arrive  in  time. 

Of  course  he  had  no  money  to  buy  tele- 
graphic apparatus,  wire,  etc.,  etc.  But  he 
thought  he  could  get  it.  "  How  does  any  one 
build  railroads  or  telegraphic  lines?"  he  had 
said  to  Kate.  "  Do  they  take  the  money  out 
of  their  own  pockets?" 


HARRY'S  GRAND  SCHEME.  129 

Kate  had  answered  that  she  didn't  suppose 
they  did,  unless  the  money  was  there ;  and 
Harry  had  told  her,  very  confidently,  that  the 
money  was  never  there.  No  man,  or,  at  least, 
very  few  men,  could  afford  to  construct  a  rail- 
road or  telegraph  line.  The  way  these  things 
were  done  was  by  forming  a  company. 

And  this  was  just  what  Harry  proposed  to  do. 

It  was,  of  course,  quite  difficult  to  determine 
just  how  large  a  company  this  should  be.  If 
it  were  composed  of  too  many  members,  the 
profits,  which  would  be  limited,  owing  to  the 
peculiar  circumstances  of  the  case,  would  not 
amount  to  much  for  each  stockholder.  And 
yet  there  must  be  members  enough  to  furnish 
money  enough. 

And  more  than  that,  a  contract  must  be 
made  with  the  mica-mine  people,  so  that  the 
buiness  should  not  be  diverted  from  Harry's 
company  into  any  outside  channels. 

All  these  things  occupied  Harry's  mind,  and 
it  is  no  wonder  that  he  hardly  looked  up  when 
Selim  stopped.  The  horse  had  been  walking  so 
slowly  that  stopping  did  not  seem  to  make  much 
difference. 

6* 


130      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

But  when  he  heard  a  voice  call  out,  "  Oh, 
Mah'sr  Harry !  Fse  mighty  glad  to  see  yer ! " 
he  looked  up  quickly  enough. 

And  there  was  old  Uncle  Braddock,  on  horse- 
back ! 

Harry  could  scarcely  believe  his  eyes. 

And  what  was  more  astonishing,  the  old 
negro  had  no  less  than  four  other  horses  with 
him  that  he  was  leading,  or  rather  trying  to 
lead,  out  of  a  road  through  the  old-field  pines 
that  here  joined  the  main  road. 

"  Why,  what's  the  meaning  of  this  ?  "  cried 
Harry.  "  Where  did  you  get  those  horses,  Uncle 
Braddock?" 

And  then,  without  waiting  for  an  answer, 
Harry  burst  out  laughing.  Such  a  ridiculous 
sight  was  enough  to  make  anybody  laugh. 

Uncle  Braddock  sat  on  the  foremost  horse, 
his  legs  drawn  up  as  if  he  were  sitting  on  a  chair, 
and  a  low  one  at  that,  for  he  had  been  gradually 
shortening  the  stirrups  for  the  last  hour,  hoping 
in  that  way  to  get  a  firmer  seat.  His  long  stick 
was  in  one  hand,  his  old  hat  was  jammed  down 
tightly  over  his  eyes,  and  his  dressing-gown 
floated  in  the  wind  like  a  rag-bag  out  for  a  holiday. 


HARRY'S  GRAND  SCHEME.  131 

"  Oh,  I'se  mighty  glad  to  see  yer,  Mah'sr 
Harry !  "  said  he,  pulling  at  his  horse's  bridle  in 
such  a  way  as  to  make  him  nearly  run  into  Selim 
and  Harry,  who,  however,  managed  to  avoid  him 
and  the  rest  of  the  cavalcade  by  moving  off  to 
the  other  side  of  the  road. 

"  I  was  jist  a-thinkin'  uv  gittin'  off  and  lettin' 
'em  go  'long  they  own  se'ves.  I  never  seed  sich 
hosses  fur  twistin'  up  and  pullin'  crooked.  I 
'spected  to  have  my  neck  broke  inor'  'n  a  dozen 
times.  I  never  was  so  disgruntled  in  all  my 
born  days,  Mah'sr  Harry.  Whoa  dar,  you  yaller 
hoss  !  Won't  you  take  a-hole,  Mah'sr  Harry, 
afore  dey're  de« death  uv  me?  " 

The  old  man  had  certainly  got  the  horses 
into  a  mixed-up  condition.  One  of  them  was 
beside  the  horse  he  rode,  two  were  behind,  and 
one  was  wedged  in  partly  in  front  of  these  in 
such  a  way  that  he  had  to  travel  sidewise.  The 
bridle  of  one  horse  was  tied  to  that  of  another, 
so  that  Uncle  Braddock  led  them  all  by  the 
bridle  of  the  horse  by  his  side.  Thisjvas  tied  to 
his  long  cane,  which  he  grasped  firmly  in  his  left 
hand. 

Harry  jumped  down  from  Selim,  and,  tying 


132      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

him  to  the  fence,  went  over  to  the  assistance  of 
Uncle  Braddock.  As  he  was  quite  familiar  with 
horses,  Harry  soon  arranged  matters  on  a  more 
satisfactory  footing.  He  disentangled  the  ani- 
mals, two  of  which  he  proposed  to  take  charge 
of  himself,  and  then,  after  making  Uncle  Brad- 
dock  lengthen  his  stirrups,  and  lead  both  his 
horses  on  one  side  of  him,  he  fastened  the  other 
two  horses  side  by  side,  mounted  Selim,  and 
started  back  for  Akeville,  followed  by  Uncle 
Braddock  and  his  reduced  cavalcade. 

The  old  negro  was  profuse  in  his  thanks ; 
but  in  the  middle  of  his  protestations  of  satis- 
faction, Harry  suddenly  interrupted  him. 

"  Why,  look  here,  Uncle  Braddock  !  Where 
did  you  get  these  horses?  These  are  the  horses 
George  Mason  stole." 

"  To  be  sure  they  is,"  said  Uncle  Braddock. 
"  What  would  I  be  a-doin'  wid  'em  ef  they 
wasn't?" 

"But  how  did  you  get  them?  Tell  me 
about  it,"  said  Harry,  checking  the  impatient 
Selim,  who,  now  that  his  head  was  turned 
homeward,  was  anxious  to  go  on  with  as  much 
expedition  as  possible  under  the  circumstances. 


HARRY'S  GRAND  SCHEME.  133 

"  Why,  ye  see,  Mah'sr  Harry,"  said  the  old 
man,  "  I  was  up  at  Miss  Maria's ;  she  said  she'd 
gi'  me  some  pieces  of  caliker  to  mend  me  wrap- 
per. I  put  'em  in  me  pocket,  but  I  'spects 
they's  blowed  out ;  and  when  I  was  a-comin' 
away  fru  de  woods,  right  dar  whar  ole  Elick 
Potts  used  to  hab  his  cabin — reckon  you  nebber 
seed  dat  cabin  ;  it  was  all  tumbled  down  'fore 
you  was  born — right  dar  in  de  clarin'  I  seed  five 
horses,  all  tied  to  de  trees.  '  Lor's  a  massy ! '  I 
said  to  mesef,  'is  de  war  come  agin?'  Fur  I 
nebber  seed  so  many  hosses  in  de  woods  sence 
de  war.  An'  den  while  I  was  a-lookin'  roun' 
fur  a  tree  big  enough  to  git  behind,  wrapper  an' 
all,  out  comes  Mah'sr  George  Mason  from  a 
bush,  an'  he  hollers,  '  Hello,  Uncle  Braddock, 
you  come  a-here.'  An'  then  he  says,  'You 
ain't  much,  Uncle  Braddock,  but  I  guess  you'll 
do  ! '  An'  I  says,  '  Don't  believe  I'll  do,  Mah'sr 
George,  fur  you  know  I  can't  march,  an'  I 
nebber  could  shoot  none,  an'  I  got  de  rheumer- 
tiz  in  both  me  legs  and  me  back,  and  no  jint- 
water  in  me  knees — you  can't  make  no  soldier 
out  er  me,  Mah'sr  George.'  And  then  he 
laughed,  an'  says,  '  You  would  make  a  pretty 


134  WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

soldier,  dat's  true,  Uncle  Braddock.  But  I 
don't  want  no  soldiers;  what  I  want  you  to  do 
is  to  take  these  horses  home.'  '  To  where  ? 
says  I.  '  To  Akeville,'  says  Mah'sr  George. 
An'  he  didn't  say  much  more,  neither;  for  he 
jist  tied  dem  horses  all  together  and  led  'em 
out  into  a  little  road  dat  goes  fru  de  woods  dar, 
an'  he  put  me  on  de  head  horse,  an'  he  says, 
'  Now,  go  'long,  Uncle  Braddock,  an'  ef  any- 
thing happens  to  dem  hosses  you'll  have  to  go 
to  jail  fur  it.  So,  look  out ! '  An'  bress  your 
soul,  Mah'sr  Harry,  I  did  have  to  look  out,  fur 
sich  a  drefful  time  as  I  did  have,  'specially  wid 
dat  yaller  hoss,  I  nebber  did  see." 


CHAPTER  XV. 
THE  COUNCIL. 

T  T  7  HEN  Harry's  mother  heard  that  he  had 
•  *  gone  off  to  try  and  meet  the  horse-hunt- 
ers she  was  quite  anxious  about  him. 

But  Mr.  Loudon  laughed  at  her  fears. 

"  If  there  had  been  the  slightest  danger,"  he 
said,  "  of  course  I  would  not  have  allowed  him 
to  go.  But  I  was  glad  he  wanted  to  go.  A 
youngster  of  his  age  ought  to  have  a  disposition 
to  see  what  is  going  on  and  to  take  part,  too,  for 
that  matter.  I  had  much  rather  find  it  neces- 
sary to  restrain  Harry  than  to  push  him.  You 
mustn't  want  to  make  a  girl  of  him.  You  would 
only  spoil  the  boy,  and  make  a  very  poor  girl." 

Mrs.  Loudon  made  no  reply.  She  thought 
her  husband  was  a  very  wise  man ;  but  she  took 
up  her  key  basket  and  went  off  to  the  pantry 
with  an  air  that  indicated  that  she  had  ideas  of 
her  own  upon  the  subject  in  question. 


136      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

Kate  had  no  fears  for  Harry.  She  had  un- 
bounded faith  in  his  good  sense  and  his  bravery, 
if  he  should  happen  to  get  into  danger. 

The  fact  is,  she  was  quite  a  brave  girl  herself; 
and  brave  people  are  very  apt  to  think  their 
friends  as  courageous  as  themselves. 

When  Harry  and  Uncle  Braddock  reached 
the  village  they  found  several  of  the  older  in- 
habitants on  the  store  porch,  and  they  met  with 
an  enthusiastic  reception. 

And  when,  later  in  the  afternoon,  most  of  the 
men  who  had  gone  out  after  George  Mason,  re- 
turned from  their  unsuccessful  expedition,  the 
discussion  in  regard  to  Mason's  strange  proceed- 
ing grew  very  animated.  Some  thought  he  had 
only  intended  to  play  a  .trick  ;  others  that  he 
had  been  unable  to  get  away  with  the  horses,  as 
he  had  hoped  to  do  when  he  had  taken  them. 

But  nobody  knew  anything  about  the  matter 
excepting  George  Mason  himself,  and  he  was  not 
there  to  give  the  village  any  information. 

As  for  Harry,  he  did  not  stay  long  to  hear 
the  discussions  at  the  store. 

His  mind  was  full  of  a  much  more  import- 
ant matter,  and  he  ran  off  to  find  Kate.  He 


THE  COUNCIL.      t  137 

wanted  to  talk  over  his  latest  impressions  with 
her. 

When  he  reached  the  house,  where  his  ap- 
pearance greatly  tranquillized  his  mother's  mind, 
he  found  Kate  in  the  yard  under  the  bigcatalpa- 
trees,  always  a  favorite  place  of  resort  in  fine 
weather. 

"  Oh,  Harry  !"  she  cried,  when  she  saw  him, 
"  did  they  find  the  horses  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Harry  ;  "  they  didn't  find  them." 

"  Oh,  what  a  pity  !  And  some  of  them  were 
borrowed  horses.  Tony  Kirk  had  Captain  Case- 
by's  mud-colored  horse.  I  don't  know  what  the 
captain  will  do  without  him." 

"  Oh,  the  captain  will  do  very  well,"  said 
Harry. 

"  But  he  can't  do  very  well,"  persisted  Kate. 
"  It's  the  only  horse  he  has  in  the  world.  One 
thing  certain,  they  can't  go  to  church." 

Harry  laughed  at  this,  and  then  he  told  his 
sister  all  about  his  meeting  with  Uncle  Braddock. 
But  while  she  was  wondering  and  surmising  in 
regard  to  George  Mason's  strange  conduct,  Harry, 
who  could  not  keep  his  thoughts  from  more 
important  matters,  broke  in  with  : 


138      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

"  But,  I  say,  Kate,  I've  made  up  my  mind 
about  the  telegraph  business.  There  must  be  a 
company,  and  we  ought  to  plan  it  all  out  before 
we  tell  people  and  sell  shares." 

"  That's  right,"  cried  Kate,  who  was  always 
ready  for  a  plan.  "  Let's  do  it  now." 

So,  down  she  sat  upon  the  ground,  and  Harry 
sat  down  in  front  of  her. 

Then  they  held  a  council. 

"  In  the  first  place,  we  must  have  a  Presi- 
dent," said  Harry. 

"  That  ought  to  be  you,"  said  Kate. 

"Yes,"  said  Harry,  "  I  suppose  I  ought  to  be 
President.  And  then  we  must  have  a  Treasurer, 
and  I  think  you  should  be  Treasurer." 

"  Yes,"  said  Kate,  "  that  would  do  very  well. 
But  where  could  I  keep  the  money  ?  " 

"  Pshaw ! "  said  Harry.  "  It's  no  use  to 
bother  ourselves  about  that.  We'd  better  get 
the  money  first,  and  then  see  where  we  can  put 
it.  I  reckon  it'll  be  spent  before  anybody  gets 
a  chance  to  steal  it.  And  now  then,  we  must 
have  a  Secretary." 

"  How  wouh^Jom  Selden  do  for  Secretary  ?  " 
asked  Kate. 


THE  COUNCIL.  139 

"  Oh,  he  isn't  careful  enough,"  answered 
Harry.  "  I  think  you  ought  to  be  Secretary. 
You  can  write  well,  and  you'll  keep  everything 
in  order." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Kate,  "  I'll  be  Secretary." 

"  I  think,"  said  Harry,  "  that  we  have  now 
about  all  the  officers  we  want,  excepting,  of 
course,  an  Engineer,  and  I  shall  be  Engineer  ;  for 
I  have  planned  out  the  whole  thing  already." 

11  I  didn't  know  there  was  to  be  an  engine," 
said  Kate. 

"  Engine !  "  exclaimed  Harry,  laughing. 
"  That's  a  good  one !  I  don't  mean  an  engineer 
of  a  steam-engine.  What  we  want  is  a  Civil 
Engineer ;  a  man  who  lays  out  railroad  lines  and 
all  that  kind  of  thing.  I'm  not  right  sure  that  a 
Civil  Engineer  does  plan  out  telegraph  lines  ;  but 
it  don't  make  any  difference  what  we  call  the 
officer.  He'll  have  to  attend  to  putting  up  the 
line." 

"  And  do  you  think  you  can  do  it  ?  "  said 
Kate.  "  I  should  suppose  it  would  be  a  good 
deal  harder  to  be  Engineer  than  to  be  President." 

"  Yes,  I  suppose  it  will ;  but  I've  studied  the 
matter.  I've  watched  the  men  putting  up  new 


140   WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

> 
wires  at  Hetertown,  and  Mr.  Lyons  told  me  all 

he  knew  about  it.  It's  easy  enough.  Very  dif- 
ferent from  building  a  railroad." 

"  It  must  be  a  good  deal  safer  to  build  a  rail- 
road, though,"  said  Kate.  "  You  don't  have  to 
go  so  high  up  in  the  air." 

"  You're  a  little  goose,"  said  Harry,  laughing 
at  her  again. 

"No,  I'm  not,"  said  Kate.  "  I'm  Treasurer 
and  Secretary  of  the —  What  shall  we  call  the 
company,  Harry?  It  ought  to  have  a  name." 

"  Certainly  it  ought,"  said  her  brother. 
"  How  would  '  The  Mica  Mine  Telegraph  Com- 
pany '-  No,  that  wouldn't  do  at  all.  It  isn't 
theirs.  It's  ours." 

"Call  it  'The  London  Telegraph  Com- 
pany,' "  said  Kate. 

"  That  would  be  nearer  the  thing,  but  it 
wouldn't  be  very  modest,  though  people  often 
do  call  their  companies  after  their  own  names. 
What  do  you  think  of '  The  Akeville  and  Heter- 
town  Company  '  ?  " 

"  But  it  won't  go  to  either  of  those  places," 
said  Kate.  "  It  will  only  cross  the  creek." 


THE  COUNCIL.  14! 

"  All  right !  "  exclaimed  Harry.  "  Let's  call 
it  'The  Crooked  Creek  Telegraph  Company.'" 

"Good!"  said  Kate.  "That's  the  very 
name." 

So  the  company  was  named. 

"  Now,"  said  Kate,  "  we've  got  all  the  head 
officers  and  the  name ;  what  do  we  want 
next?" 

"  We  want  a  good  many  other  things,"  said 
Harry.  "  I  suppose  we  ought  to  have  a  Board 
of  Directors." 

"  Shall  we  be  in  that  ?  "  asked  Kate. 

Harry  considered  this  question  before  answer- 
ing it.  "  I  think  the  President  ought  to  be  in 
it,5'  he  said,  "  but  I  don't  know  about  the 
Secretary  and  Treasurer.  I  think  they  are 
not  generally  Directors." 

"  Well,"  said  Kate,  with  a  little  sigh,  "  I 
don't  mind." 

"  You  can  be,  if  you  want  to,"  said  Harry. 
x'  Wait  until  we  get  the  Board  organized,  and 
I'll  talk  to  the  other  fellows  about  it." 

"  Are  they  going  to  be  all  boys  ? "  asked 
Kate,  quickly. 

"  I  reckon  so,"  said  Harry.     "  We  don't  want 


142      WHAT  MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

any  men  in  our  Board.  They'd  be  ordering  us 
about  and  doing  everything  themselves." 

"  I  didn't  mean  that.  Will  there  be  any 
girls?" 

"  No,"  said  Harry,  a  little  contemptuously,  it 
is  to  be  feared.  "  There  isn't  a  girl  in  the  vil- 
lage who  knows  anything  about  telegraph  lines, 
except  you." 

"  Well,  if  it's  to  be  all  boys,  I  don't  believe  I 
would  care  to  belong  to  the  Board,"  said  Kate. 
"  But  who  are  we  going  to  have?" 

This  selection  of  the  members  of  the  Board 
of  Directors  seemed  a  little  difficult  at  first,  but 
as  there  were  so  few  boys  to  choose  from  it  was 
settled  in  quite  a  short  time. 

Tom  Selden,  Harvey  Davis,  George  Purvis, 
Dr.  Price's  youngest  son,  Brandeth,  and  Wilson 
Ogden,  were  chosen,  and  these,  with  the  addition 
of  Harry,  made  up  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the 
Crooked  Creek  Telegraph  Company. 

"  Well,"  said  Kate,  as  the  council  arose  and 
adjourned,  "  I  hope  we'll  settle  the  rest  of  our 
business  as  easily  as  we  have  settled  this  part." 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

COMPANY  BUSINESS. 

A  FTER  the  selection  of  the  Directors,  all  of 
<**  whom  accepted  their  appointments  with 
great  readiness,  although,  with  the  exception  of 
Tom  Selden,  none  of  them  had  known  anything 
about  the  company  until  informed  by  Harry  of 
their  connection  with  its  management,  it  re- 
mained only  to  get  subscriptions  to  the  capital 
stock,  and  then  the  construction  of  the  line 
might  immediately  begin. 

Harry  and  Kate  made  out  a  statement  of 
the  probable  expense,  and  a  very  good  state- 
ment it  was,  for,  as  Harry  had  said,  he  had  tho- 
roughly studied  up  the  matter,  aided  by  the 
counsel  of  Mr.  Lyons,  the  operator  at  Heter- 
town. 

This  statement,  with  the  probable  profits  and 
the  great  advantages  of  such  a  line,  was  written 
out  by  Harry,  and  the  Secretary,  considering  all 


144      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN  EXPECTED. 

clerical  work  to  be  her  especial  business,  made 
six  fair  copies,  one  of  which  was  delivered  to 
each  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  who  undertook 
to  solicit  subscriptions. 

A  brief  constitution  was  drawn  up,  and  by  a 
clause  in  this  instrument,  one-quarter  of  the 
profits  were  to  go  to  the  stockholders  and  the 
rest  to  Aunt  Matilda. 

The  mica-mine  men,  when  visited  by  Harry, 
who  carried  a  letter  from  his  father,  at  first  gave 
the  subject  but  little  consideration,  but  after  they 
found  how  earnest  Harry  was  in  regard  to  the 
matter  and  how,  thoroughly  he  had  studied  up 
the  subject,  theoretically  and  practically,  under 
the  tuition  of  his  friend,  Mr.  Lyons,  they  began 
to  think  that  possibly  the  scheme  might  prove 
of  advantage  to  them. 

After  a  good  deal  of  talk — enough  to  have 
settled  much  more  important  business — they 
agreed  to  take  stock  in  the  telegraph  company, 
provided  Harry  and  his  Board  purchased  first- 
class  instruments  and  appliances. 

Their  idea  in  insisting  upon  this  was  the 
suggestion  of  their  manager,  that  if  the  boys 
failed  in  their  project  they  might  get  possession 


COMPANY   BUSINESS.  145 

of  the  line  and  work  it  themselves.  Conse- 
quently, with  a  view  both  to  the  present  success 
of  the  association  and  their  own  possible  acqui- 
sition of  the  line,  they  insisted  on  first-class 
instruments. 

This  determination  discouraged  Harry  and 
his  friends,  for  they  had  not  calculated  upon  mak- 
ing the  comparatively  large  expenditures  neces- 
sary to  procure  these  first-class  instruments. 

They  had  thought  to  buy  some  cheap  but 
effective  apparatus  of  which  they  had  heard,  and 
which,  for  amateur  purposes,  answered  very  well. 

But  when  the  mica-mine  officers  agreed  to 
contribute  a  sum  in  proportion  to  the  increased 
capital  demanded,  Harry  became  quite  hopeful, 
and  the  other  members  of  the  Board  agreed  that 
they  had  better  work  harder  and  do  the  thing 
right  while  they  were  about  it. 

The  capital  of  the  company  was  fixed  at  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  and  to  this  the  mica- 
mine  people  agreed  to  subscribe  fifty  dollars. 
They  also  gave  a  written  promise  to  give  all  the 
business  of  that  kind  that  they  might  have  for 
a  year  from  date,  to  Harry  and  his  associates, 
provided  that  the  telegraphic  service  should 
7 


146      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

always  be  performed  promptly  and  to  their  sat- 
isfaction. 

A  contract,  fixing  rates,  etc.,  was  drawn  up, 
and  Harry,  the  Directors,  the  Secretary,  and  the 
Treasurer,  all  and  severally  signed  it.  This  was 
not  actually  necessary,-  but  these  officers,  quite 
naturally,  were  desirous  of  doing  all  the  signing 
that  came  in  ttieir  way. 

Private  subscriptions  came  in  more  slowly. 
Mr.  Loudon  gave  fifteen  dollars,  and  Dr.  Price 
contributed  ten,  as  his  son  was  a  Director.  Old 
Mr.  Truly  Matthews  subscribed  five  dollars,  and 
hoped  that  he  should  see  his  money  back  again  ; 
but  if  he  didn't,  he  supposed  it  would  help  to 
keep  the  boys  out  of  mischief.  Small  sums  were 
contributed  by  other  persons  in  the  village  and 
neighborhood,  each  of  whom  was  furnished  with 
a  certificate  of  stock  proportioned  to  the  amount 
of  the  investment. 

There  were  fifty  shares  issued,  of  three  dol- 
lars each  ;  and  Miss  Jane  Davis,  who  subscribed 
one  dollar  and  a  quarter,  got  five-twelfths  of  a 
share.  The  members  of  the  Board,  collectively, 
put  in  thirty  dollars. 

The  majority  of  the  shareholders  considered 


COMPANY   BUSINESS.  147 

their  money  as  a  donation  to  a  good  cause,  for, 
of  course,  it  was  known  that  Aunt  Matilda's  sup- 
port was  the  object  of  the  whole  business ;  but 
some  hoped  to  make  something  out  of  it,  and 
others  contributed  out  of  curiosity  to  see  what 
sort  of  a  telegraph  the  company  would  build,  and 
how  it  would  work. 

It  was  urged  by  some  wise  people  that  if  this 
money  had  been  contributed  directly  to  Aunt 
Matilda,  it  would  have  been  of  much  more  ser- 
vice to  her ;  but  other  people,  equally  wise,  said 
that  in  that  case,  the  money  could  never  have 
been  raised. 

The  colored  people,  old  and  young,  took  a 
great  interest  in  the  matter,  and  some  of  them 
took  parts  of  shares,  which  was  better.  Even 
John  William  Webster  took  seventy-five  cents' 
worth  of  stock. 

The  most  astonishing  subscription  was  one 
from  Aunt  Matilda  herself.  One  day  she  handed 
to  Kate  a  ten-cent  piece — silver,  old  style — and 
desired  that  that  might  be  put  into  the  company 
for  her.  Where  she  got  it,  nobody  knew,  but 
she  had  it,  and  she  put  it  in. 

Explanations  were  of  no  use.     The  fact  of 


148   WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

the  whole  business  being  for  her  benefit  made 
no  impression  on  her.  She  wanted  a  share  in 
the  company,  and  was  proud  of  her  one-thirtieth 
part  of  a  share. 

Taking  them  as  a  whole,  the  Board  of  Direc- 
tors appeared  to  have  been  very  well  chosen. 


A    SHAREHOLDER. 


Tom  Selden  was  a  good  fellow  and  a  firm  friend 
of  Harry  and  Kate.  They  might  always  reckon 
upon  his  support,  although  he  had  the  fault, 
when  matters  seemed  a  little  undecided,  of  giv- 
ing his  advice  at  great  length.  But  when  a 


COMPANY   BUSINESS.  149 

thing  was  agreed  upon  he  went  to  work  without 
a  word. 

Harvey  Davis  was  a  large,  blue-eyed  boy, 
very  quiet,  with  yellow  hair.  He  was  one  of  the 
best  scholars  in  the  Akeville  school,  and  could 
throw  a  stone  over  the  highest  oak-tree  by  the 
church — something  no  other  boy  in  the  village 
could  do.  He  made  an  admirable  Director. 

Dr.  Price's  son,  Brandeth,  and  Wilson  Ogden, 
lived  some  miles  from  the  village,  and  sometimes 
one  or  the  other  of  them  did  not  get  to  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Board  until  the  business  before  it  had 
been  despatched.  But  they  always  attended 
punctually  if  there  was  a  horse  or  a  mule  to  be 
had  in  time,  and  made  no  trouble  when  they 
came. 

George  Purvis  lived  just  outside  of  the  village. 
He  was  a  tall  fellow  with  a  little  head.  His 
father  had  been  in  the  Legislature,  and  George 
was  a  great  fellow  to  talk,  and  he  was  full  of 
new  ideas.  If  Harry  and  Kate  had  not  worked 
out  so  thoroughly  the  plan  of  the  company  be- 
fore electing  the  Directors,  George  would  have 
given  the  rest  of  the  Board  a  great  deal  of 
trouble. 


I5O   WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

When  about  four-fifths  of  the  capital  stock 
had  been  subscribed,  and  there  was  not  much 
likelihood  of  their  getting  any  more  at  present, 
the  Board  of  Directors  determined  to  go  to 
work. 

Acting  under  the  advice  and  counsel  of  Mr. 
Lyons  (who  ought  to  have  been  a  Director,  but 
who  was  not  offered  the  position),  they  sent  to 
New  York  for  two  sets  of  telegraphic  instru- 
ments— registers,  keys,  batteries,  reels,  etc.,  etc. 
— one  set  for  each  office,  and  for  about  half  a 
mile  of  wire,  with  the  necessary  office-wire,  insu- 
lators, etc. 

This  took  pretty  much  all  their  capital,  but 
they  hoped  to  economize  a  good  deal  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  line,  and  felt  quite  hopeful. 

But  it  seemed  to  be  a  long  and  dreary  time 
that  they  had  to  wait  for  the  arrival  of  their  pur- 
chases from  New  York.  Either  Harry  or  one  of 
the  other  boys  rode  over  to  Hetertown  every 
day,  and  the  attention  they  paid  to  the  opera- 
tion of  telegraphy,  while  waiting  for  the  train, 
was  something  wonderful. 

It  was  a  fortunate  thing  for  the  Board  that, 
on  account  of  the  sickness  of  the  teacher,  the 


COMPANY   BUSINESS.  I$I 

vacation  commenced  earlier  than  usual  in  Ake- 
ville  that  year. 

More  than  a  week  passed,  and  no  word  from 
New  York.  No  wonder  the  boys  became  impa- 
tient. It  had  been  a  month,  or  more,  since  the 
scheme  had  been  first  broached  in  the  village, 
and  nothing  had  yet  been  done — at  least,  no- 
thing to  which  the  boys  could  point  as  evi- 
dence of  progress. 

The  field  of  operation  had  been  thoroughly 
explored.  The  pine-trees  which  were  to  serve 
as  telegraph-poles  had  been  selected,  and  con- 
tracts had  been  made  with  "  One-eyed  Lews- 
ton,"  a  colored  preacher,  who  lived  near  the 
creek  on  the  Akeville  side,  and  with  Aunt  Judy, 
who  had  a  log-house  on  the  Hetertown  side,  by 
which  these  edifices  were  to  be  used  as  tele- 
graphic stations.  The  instruments  and  batte- 
ries, when  not  in  use,  were  to  be  locked  up  in 
stationary  cases,  made  by  the  Akeville  carpen- 
ter, after  designs  by  Harry. 

Of  course,  while  waiting  for  the  arrival  of 
their  goods  from  New  York,  the  Board  met  every 
day.  Having  little  real  business,  their  discus- 
sions were  not  always  harmonious. 


152   WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

George  Purvis  grew  discontented.  Several 
times  he  said  to  Brandeth  Price  and  Harvey 
Ogden  that  he  didn't  see  why  he  shouldn't  be 
something  more  than  a  mere  Director,  and  a  re- 
mark that  Harvey  once  made,  that  if  Harry  and 
Kate  had  not  chosen  to  ask  him  to  join  them  he 
would  not  have  been  even  a  Director,  made  no 
impression  upon  him. 

One  day,  when  a  meeting  was  in  session  by 
the  roadside,  near  "  One-eyed  Lewston's"  cabin 
— or  the  Akeville  telegraph  station,  as  I  should 
say — George  and  Harry  had  a  slight  dispute, 
and  Purvis  took  occasion  to  give  vent  to  some 
of  his  dissatisfaction. 

"  I  don't  see  what  you're  President  for,  any- 
way," said  he  to  Harry.  "  After  the  Board  of 
Directors  had  been  organized  it  ought  to  have 
elected  all  the  officers." 

"  But  none  of  you  fellows  knew  anything 
about  the  business,"  said  Harry.  "  Kate  and  I 
got  up  the  company,  and  we  needn't  have  had  a 
Board  of  Directors  at  all,  if  we  hadn't  wanted 
to.  If  any  of  you  boys  had  known  anything 
about  telegraphs  we  would  have  given  you  an 
office." 


COMPANY   BUSINESS.  153 

"  I  reckon  you  don't  have  to  know  anything 
about  telegraphs  to  be  Secretary,  or  Treasurer 
either,"  said  George,  warmly. 

"  No,"  answered  Harry,  "  but  you've  got  to 
know  how  to  keep  accounts  and  to  be  careful 
and  particular." 

"  Like  your  sister  Kate,  I  suppose,"  said 
George,  with  a  sneer. 

"  Yes,  like  Kate,"  answered  Harry. 

"  I'd  be  ashamed  of  myself,"  said  George, 
"  if  I  couldn't  get  a  better  Secretary  or  Treasurer 
than  a  girl.  I  don't  see  what  a  girl  is  doing 
in  the  company,  anyway.  The  right  kind  of  a 
girl  wouldn't  be  seen  pushing  herself  in  among  a 
lot  of  boys  that  don't  want  her." 

Without  another  word,  the  President  of  the 
Crooked  Creek  Telegraph  Company  arose  and 
offered  battle  to  George  Purvis.  The  contest 
was  a  severe  one,  for  Purvis  was  a  tall  fellow,  but 
Harry  was  as  tough  as  the  sole  of  your  boot,  and 
he  finally  laid  his  antagonist  on  the  flat  of  his 
back  in  the  road. 

George  arose,  put  on  his  hat,  dusted  off  his 
clothes,  and  resigned  his  position  in  the  Board. 
7* 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
PRINCIPALLY  CONCERNING  KATE. 

T~\URING  all  this  work  of  soliciting  sub- 
"•"-r  scriptions,  ordering  instruments  and  bat- 
teries, and  leasing  stations,  Kate  had  kept  pretty 
much  in  the  background.  True,  she  had  not 
been  idle.  She  had  covered  a  great  deal  of 
paper  with  calculations,  and  had  issued  certifi- 
cates of  stock,  all  in  her  own  plain  handwriting, 
to  those  persons  who  had  put  money  into  the 
treasury  of  the  company.  And  she  had  received 
all  that  money,  had  kept  accurate  account  of  it, 
and  had  locked  it  up  in  a  little  box  which  was 
kindly  kept  for  her  in  the  iron  safe  owned  by 
Mr.  Darby,  the  store-keeper. 

When  the  money  was  all  drawn  out  and  sent 
to  New  York,  her  duties  became  easier. 

School  had  closed,  as  has  been  before  stated, 
and  although  Kate  had  home  duties  and  some 
home  studies,  she  had  plenty  of  time  for  out- 


PRINCIPALLY  CONCERNING  KATE.  155 

door  life.  But  now  she  almost  always  had  to 
enjoy  that  life  alone,  if  we  except  the  company 
of  Rob,  who  generally  kept  faithfully  near  her 
so  long  as  she  saw  fit  to  walk,  but  when  she 
stopped  to  rest  or  to  pursue  some  of  her  botani- 
cal or  entomological  studies  he  was  very  apt  to 
wander  off  on  his  own  account.  He  liked  to 
keep  moving. 

One  of  her  favorite  resorts  was  what  was 
called  the  "  Near  Woods,"  a  piece  of  forest  land 
not  far  from  Mr.  Loudon's  house,  and  within 
calling  distance  of  several  dwellings  and  negro 
cabins.  She  visited  Aunt  Matilda  nearly  every 
day;  but  the  woods  around  her  cabin  were 
principally  pine,  and  pine  forests  are  generally 
very  sombre. 

But  the  "  Near  Woods  "  were  principally  of 
oak  and  hickory,  with  dogwood,  sweet  gum,  and 
other  smaller  trees  here  and  there ;  and  there 
were  open  spots  where  the  sun  shone  in  and 
where  flowers  grew  and  the  insects  loved  to 
come,  as  well  as  heavily  shaded  places  under 
grand  old  trees. 

She  thoroughly  enjoyed  herself  in  a  wood 
like  this.  She  did  not  feel  in  the  least  lonely, 


156  WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

although  she  would  have  found  herself  sadly 
alone  in  a  busy  street  of  a  great  city. 

Here,  she  was  acquainted  with  everything 
she  saw.  There  was  company  for  her  on  every 
'side.  She  had  not  been  in  the  habit  of  passing 
the  trees  and  the  bushes,  the  lichens  and  ferns, 
and  the  flowers  and  mosses  as  if  they  were 
merely  people  hurrying  up  and  down  the  street. 
She  had  stopped  and  made  their  acquaint- 
ance, and  now  she  knew  them  all,  and  they 
weje  her  good  friends,  excepting  a  few,  such  as 
the  poison-vines,  and  here  and  there  a  plant  or 
reptile,  with  which  she  was  never  on  terms  of 
intimacy. 

She  would  often  sit  and  swing  on  a  low- 
bending  grape-vine,  that  hung  between  two  lofty 
trees,  sometimes  singing,  and  sometimes  listen- 
ing to  the  insects  that  hummed  around  her,  and 
all  the  while  as  happy  a  Kate  as  any  Kate  in  the 
world. 

It  was  here,  on  the  grape-vine  swing,  that 
Harry  found  her,  the  day  after  his  little  affair 
with  George  Purvis. 

"Why,  Harry!"  she  cried,  "I  thought  you 
were  having  a  meeting." 


PRINCIPALLY   CONCERNING  KATE. 

"  There's  nothing  to  meet  about,"  said  Harry, 
seating  himself  on  a  big  moss-covered  root  near 
Kate's  swing. 

"  There  will  be  when  the  telegraph  things 
come,"  said  Kate. 

"  Oh,  yes,  there'll  be  enough  to  do  then,  but 
it  seems  as  if  they  were  never  coming.  And  I've 
been  thinking  about  something,  Kate.  It  strikes 
me  that,  perhaps,  it  would  be  better  for  you  to 
hold  only  one  office." 

"  Why  ?  Don't  I  do  well  enough  ?  "  asked 
Kate,  quickly,  stopping  herself  very  suddenly  in 
her  swinging. 

"  Oh,  yes !  you  do  better  than  any  one  else 
could.  But,  you  see,  the  other  fellows — I  mean 
the  Board — may  think  that  some  of  them  ought 
to  have  an  office.  I'd  give  them  one  of  mine, 
but  none  of  them  would  do  for  Engineer.  They 
don't  know  enough  about  the  business." 

"  Which  office  would  you  give  up,  if  you  were 
me  ?  "  asked  Kate. 

"  Oh,  I'd  give  up  the  Secretaryship,  of 
course,"  said  Harry.  "  Nobody  but  you  must 
be  Treasurer.  Harvey  Davis  would  make  a  very 


I $8      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

good  Secretary,  considering  that  there's  so  little 
writing  to  do  now." 

"Well,  then,"  said  Kate,  "let  Harvey  be 
Secretary." 

There  was  no  bitterness  or  reproachfulness  in 
Kate's  words,  but  she  looked  a  little  serious,  and 
began  to  swing  herself  very  vigorously.  It  was 
evident  that  she  felt  this  resignation  of  her  fa- 
vorite office  much  more  deeply  than  she  chose  to 
express.  And  no  wonder.  She  had  done  all 
the  work ;  she  had  taken  a  pride  in  doing  her 
work  well,  and  now,  when  the  company  was 
about  to  enter  upon  its  actual  public  life,  she  was 
to  retire  into  the  background.  For  a  Treasurer 
had  not  much  to  do,  especially  now  that  there 
was  so  little  money.  There  was  scarcely  a  paper 
for  the  Treasurer  to  sign.  But  the  Secretary — 
Well,  there  was  no  use  of  thinking  any  more 
about  it.  No  doubt  Harry  knew  what  was  best. 
He  was  with  the  Board  every  day,  and.  she 
scarcely  ever  met  the  members. 

Harry  saw  that  Kate  was  troubled,  but  he 
didn't  know  what  to  say,  and  so  he  whittled  at 
the  root  on  which  he  was  sitting. 

"  I  should  think,  Harry,"  said  Kate  directly, 


PRINCIPALLY   CONCERNING   KATE.  159 

•''that  George  Purvis  would  want  to  be  Secretary. 
He's  just  the  kind  of  a  boy  to  like  to  be  an 
officer  of  some  kind." 

"  Oh,  he  can't  be  an  officer,"  said  Harry, 
still  whittling  at  the  root.  "  He  has  resigned." 

"  George  Purvis  resigned  !  "  exclaimed  Kate. 
"  Why,  what  did  he  do  that  for?  " 

"  Oh,  we  didn't  agree,"  said  Harry ;  "  and 
we're  better  off  without  him.  We  have  Direc- 
tors enough  as  it  is.  Five  is  a  very  good 
number.  There  can't  be  a  tie  vote  with  five 
members  in  the  Board." 

Kate  suspected  that  something  had  hap- 
pened that  she  was  not  to  be  told.  But  she 
asked  no  questions. 

After  a  few  minutes  of  swinging  and  whittling, 
in  which  neither  of  them  said  anything,  Kate 
got  out  of  her  grape-vine  swing  and  picked  up 
her  hat  from  the  ground,  and  Harry  jumped  up 
and  whistled  for  Rob. 

As  they  walked  home  together,  Kate  said  : 

"  Harry,  I  think  I'd  better  resign  as  Trea- 
surer. Perhaps  the  officers  ought  all  to  be 
boys." 

"  Look   here,    Kate,"   said    Harry ;    and   he 


l6o      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

stopped  as  he  spoke,  "  I'm  not  going  to  have 
anybody  else  as  Treasurer.  If  you  resign  that 
office  I'll  smash  the  company  !  " 

Of  course,  after  that  there  was  nothing  more 
to  be  said,  and  Kate  remained  Treasurer  of  the 
Crooked  Creek  Telegraph  Company. 

Before  very  long,  of  course,  she  heard  the 
particulars  of  George  Purvis's  resignation.  She 
didn't  say  much  about  it,  but  she  was  very  glad 
that  it  was  not  Harry  who  had  been  whipped. 

The  next  morning,  quite  early — the  birds 
and  the  negroes  had  been  up  some  time,  but 
everybody  in  Mr.  Loudon's  house  was  still 
sleeping  soundly — Harry,  who  had  a  small  room 
at  the  front  of  the  house,  was  awakened  by  the 
noise  of  a  horse  galloping  wildly  up  to  the  front 
gate,  and  by  hearing  his  name  shouted  out  at 
the  top  of  a  boy's  voice. 

The  boy  was  Tom  Selden,  and  he  shouted  : 

"Oh,  Harry!  Harry  Loudon!  Hello,  there  ! 
The  telegraph  things  have  come  !  " 

Harry  gave  one  bound.  He  jerked  on  his 
clothes  quicker  than  you  could  say  the  multipli- 
cation table,  and  he  rushed  down  stairs  and  into 
the  front  yard. 


PRINCIPALLY   CONCERNING  KATE.  l6l 

It  was  actually  so !  The  instruments  and 
batteries  and  everything,  all  packed  up  in  boxes 
— Tom  couldn't  say  how  many  boxes — had  come 
by  a  late  train,  and  Mr.  Lyons  had  sent  word 
over  to  his  house  last  night,  and  he'd  been  over 
there  this  morning  by  daybreak  and  had  seen 
one  of  the  boxes,  and  it  was  directed,  all  right,  to 
the  Crooked  Creek  Telegraph  Company,  and — 

There  was  a  good  deal  more  intelligence,  it 
appeared,  but  it  wasn't  easy  to  make  it  out,  for 
Harry  was  asking  fifty  questions,  and  Kate  was 
calling  out  from  one  of  the  windows,  and  Dick 
Ford  and  half-a-dozen  other  negro  boys  were 
running  up  and  shouting  to  each  other  that  the 
things  had  come.  Mr.  Loudon  came  out  to  see 
what  all  the  excitement  was  about,  and  he  had 
to  be  told  everything  by  Tom  and  Harry,  both 
at  once;  and  Rob  and  Blinks  were  barking,  and 
there  was  hubbub  enough. 

Harry  shouted  to  one  of  the  boys  to  saddle 
Selim,  and  when  the  horse  was  brought  around 
in  an  incredibly  short  time- — four  negroes  having 
clapped  on  his  saddle  and  bridle — Harry  ran  into 
the  house  to  get  his  hat;  but  just  as  he  had 


l62   WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

bounced  out  again,  his  mother  appeared  at  the 
front  door. 

"  Harry !  "  she  cried,  "  you're  not  going  off 
without  your  breakfast !  " 

"  Oh,  I  don't  want  any  breakfast,  mother," 
he  shouted. 

"  But  you  cannot  go  without  your  breakfast. 
You'll  be  sick." 

"But  just  think!"  expostulated  Harry. 
"  The  things  have  been  there  all  night." 

"  It  makes  no  difference,"  said  Mrs.  Loudon. 
"You  must  have  your  breakfast  first." 

Mr.  Loudon  now  put  in  a  word,  and  Selim 
was  led  back  to  the  stable. 

"  Well,  I  suppose  I  must,"  said  poor  Harry, 
with  an  air  of  resignation.  "  Come  in,  Tom,  and 
have  something  to  eat." 

The  news  spread  rapidly.  Harvey  Davis 
was  soon  on  hand,  and  by  the  time  breakfast 
was  over,  nearly  every  body  in  the  village  knew 
that  the  telegraph  things  had  come. 

Harry  and  Tom  did  not  get  off  as  soon  as 
they  expected,  for  Mr.  Loudon  advised  them  to 
take  the  spring-wagon — for  they  would  need  it 
to  haul  their  apparatus  to  the  telegraphic  sta- 


PRINCIPALLY   CONCERNING   KATE.  163 

tions — and  the  horse  had  to  be  harnessed,  and 
the  cases  which  were  to  protect  the  instruments, 
when  not  in  use,  were  to  be  brought  from  the 
carpenter-shop,  and  so  it  seemed  very  late  before 
they  started. 

Just  as  they  were  ready  to  go,  up  galloped 
Brandeth  Price  and  Wilson  Ogden.  So  away 
they  all  went  together,  two  of  the  Board  in  the 
wagon  and  three  on  horseback. 

Kate  stood  at  the  front  gate  looking  after 
them.  Do  what  she  would,  she  could  not  help 
a  tear  or  two  rising  to  her  eyes.  Mr.  Loudon 
noticed  her  standing  there,  and  he  went  down 
to  her. 

"  Never  mind  Kate,'  said  he.  "  I  told  them 
not  to  unpack  the  things  until  they  had  hauled 
them  to  the  creek ;  and  I'll  take  you  over  to 
Aunt  Judy's  in  the  buggy.  We'll  get  there  by 
the  time  the  boys  arrive." 


THE  ARRIVAL. 

"\T7HEN  Kate  and  her  father  reached  Aunt 
Judy's  cabin,  the  boys  had  not  yet  arrived, 
but  they  were  anxiously  expected  by  about  a 
dozen  colored  people  of  various  ages  and  sizes, 
and  by  two  or  three  white  men,  who  were  sit- 
ting under  the  trees  waiting  to  see  the  "  tele- 
graph come." 

Telegraph  apparatus  and  wires  were  not  at 
all  novel  in  that  part  of  the  country,  but  this 
was  to  be  the  first  time  that  anything  of  the 
kind  had  been  set  up  in  that  neighborhood,  in 
those  familiar  old  woods  about  Crooked  Creek. 

And  then  it  must  be  remembered,  too,  that 
most  of  these  interested  people  were  "  stock- 
holders." That  was  something  entirely  novel, 
and  it  is  no  wonder  that  they  were  anxious  to 
see  their  property. 

"  I   hopes,  Mah'sr   John,"    said    Aunt   Judy 


THE  ARRIVAL.  165 

to  Mr.  Loudon,  "  dat  dem  dar  merchines  ain't 
a-goin'  to  bust  up  when  dey're  lef  h'yar  all  alone 
by  theyselves." 

"  Oh,  there's  no  danger,  Aunt  Judy,"  said  Mr. 
Loudon,  "if  you  don't  meddle  with  them.  But 
I  suppose  you  can't  do  that,  if  the  boys  are 
going  to  case  them  up,  as  they  told  me  they 
intended  doing."  • 

"Why,  bress  your  soul,  Mah'sr  John,  ye 
needn't  be  'fraid  o'  my  techin'  'em  off.  I 
wouldn't  no  more  put  a  finger  on  'em  dan  I'd 
pull  de  trigger  ov  a  hoss  pistol." 

"  There  isn't  really  any  danger  in  having 
these  instruments  in  the  house,  is  there,  fa- 
ther?" asked  Kate,  when  she  and  Mr.  Loudon 
had  stepped  out  of  the  cabin  where  Aunt  Judy 
was  busy  sweeping  and  "  putting  things  to 
rights  "  in  honor  of  the  expected  arrival. 

"  That  depends  upon  circumstances,"  said 
Mr.  Loudon.  "  If  the  boys  are  careful  to  discon- 
nect the  instruments  and  the  wires  when  they 
leave  the  cabins,  there  is  no  more  danger  than 
there  would  be  in  a  brass  clock.  But  if  they 
leave  the  wires  attached  to  the  instruments, 
lightning  might  be  attracted  into  the  cabins 


1 66      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

during  a  thunder-storm,  and  Aunt  Judy  might 
find  the  'merchines'  quite  as  dangerous  as  a 
horse-pistol." 

"  But  they  mustn't  leave  the  wires  that  way," 
said  Kate.  "  I  sha'n't  let  Harry  forget  it. 
Why,  it  would  be  awful  to  have  Aunt  Judy  and 
poor  old  Lewston  banged  out  of  their  beds  in 
the  middle  of  the  mght." 

"  I  should  think  so,"  said  Mr.  Loudon ;  "  but 
the  boys — I  am  sure  about  Harry — understand 
their  business,  to  that  extent,  at  least.  I  don't 
apprehend  any  accidents  of  that  kind." 

Kate  was  just  about  to  ask  her  father  if  he 
feared  accidents  of  any  kind,  when  a  shout  was 
heard  from  the  negroes  by  the  roadside. 

"  Dar  dey  come !  "  sang  out  half-a-dozen 
voices,  and,  sure  enough,  there  was  the  wagon 
slowly  turning  an  angle  of  the  road,  with  the 
mounted  members  of  the  Board  riding  close  by 
its  side. 

All  now  was  bustle  and  eagerness.  Every- 
body wanted  to  do  something,  and  everybody 
wanted  to  see.  The  wagon  was  driven  up  as 
close  to  the  cabin  as  the  trees  would  allow ;  the 
boys  jumped  down  from  their  seats  and  saddles  ; 


THE  ARRIVAL.  l6/ 

the  horses'  bridles  were  fastened  to  branches  over- 
head ;  white,  black,  and  yellow  folks  clustered 
around  the  wagon  ;  and  some  twenty  hands 
were  proffered  to  aid  in  carrying  the  load  into" 
the  cabin. 

Harry  was  the  grand  director  of  affairs.  He 
had  a  good,  loud  voice,  and  it  served  him  well 
on  this  important  occasion. 

"Look  out,  there  !"  he  cried.  "  Don't  any 
of  you  touch  a  box  or  anything,  till  I  tell  you 
what  to  do.  They're  not  all  to  go  into  Aunt 
Judy's  cabin.  Some  things  are  to  go  across  the 
creek  to  Lewston's  house.  Here,  John  William 
and  Gregory,  take  this  table  and  carry  it  in  care- 
fully; and  you,  Dick,  take  that  chair.  Don't  be 
in  a  hurry.  We're  not  going  to  open  the  boxes 
out  here." 

"  Why,  Harry,"  cried  Kate,  "  I  didn't  know 
there  were  to  be  tables  and  chairs." 

"  To  tell  the  truth,  I  didn't  think  of  it  either," 
said  Harry ;  "  but  we  must  have  something  to 
put  our  instruments  on,  and  something  to  sit  on 
while  we  work  them.  Mr.  Lyons  reminded  us 
that  we'd  have  to  have  them,  and  we  got  these 
in  Hetertown.  Had  to  go  to  three  places  to  get 


1 68      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

them  all,  and  one's  borrowed,  anyway.  Look 
out  there,  you,  Bobby  !  you  can't  carry  a  chair. 
Get  down  off  that  wheel  before  you  break  your 
neck. 

"  Lor'  bress  your  heart,  Mah'sr  Harry,  is  ye 
got  a  bed  ?  I  never  did  'spect  ye  was  agoin'  to 
bring  furniture,"  cried  Aunt  Judy,  her  eyes  roll- 
ing up  and  down  in  astonishment  and  delight. 
"  Dat's  a  pooty  cheer.  Won't  hurt  a  body  to  sot 
in  dat  cheer  when  you  all  ain't  a-usin'  it,  will  it  ?  " 

"  Blow  you  right  through  the  roof,  if  you  set 
on  the  trigger,"  said  Tom  Selden ;  "  so  mind 
you're  careful,  Aunt  Judy." 

"  Now,  then,"  cried  Harry,  "  carry  in  this 
box.  Easy,  now.  We'll  take  all  the  wire  over 
on  the  other  side.  You  see,  Tom,  that  they 
leave  the  wire  in  the  wagon.  Do  you  know, 
father,  that  we  forgot  to  bring  a  hammer  or  any- 
thing to  open  these  boxes?  " 

"There's  a  hammer  under  the  seat  of  the 
buggy.  One  of  you  boys  run  and  get  it." 

At  the  word,  two  negro  boys  rushed  for  the 
buggy  and  the  hammer. 

"  A  screw-driver  would  do  better,"  said  Har- 
vey Davis. 


THE  ARRIVAL.  169 

"  One-eyed  Lewston's  got  a  screw-driver," 
said  one  of  the  men. 

"  Bar  Lewston  !  "  cried  John  William  Web- 
ster. "  Dar  he  !  Jist  comin'  ober  de  bridge." 

"  Shet  up !  "  cried  Aunt  Judy.  "  Don't  'spect 
he  got  him  screw-driber  in  him  breeches  pocket, 
does  ye  ?  Why  don'  ye  go  'long  and  git  it  ?  " 

And  away  went  John  William  and  two  other 
boys  for  the  screw-driver. 

In  spite  of  so  many  cooks,  the  broth  was  not 
spoiled  ;  and  after  a  reasonable  time  the  beauti- 
fully polished  instruments  were  displayed  to 
view  on  the  table  in  Aunt  Judy's  cabin. 

Everybody  looked  with  all  their  eyes.  Even 
Mr.  Loudon,  who  had  often  examined  tele- 
graphic apparatus,  took  a  great  interest  in  this, 
and  the  negroes  thought  there  was  never  any- 
thing so  wonderful.  Especially  were  those  de- 
lighted who  owned  stock. 

"  Some  o'  dat  dar's  mine,"  said  a  shiny-faced 
black  boy.  "  Wonder  ef  dat  little  door-knob's 
my  sheer." 

"  You  go  'long,  dar,"  said  Dick  Ford,  giving 
him  a  punch  in  the  ribs  with  his  elbow.  "  Dat 
little  shiny  screw's  'bout  as  much  as  you  own." 


I/O   WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

As  for  the  members  of  the  Board,  they  were 
radiant.  There  was  the  telegraphic  apparatus 
(or  a  part  of  it)  of  the  Crooked  Creek  Telegraph 
Company,  and  here  were  the  officers ! 

Each  one  of  them,  except  Brandeth  Price, 
explained  some  portion  of  the  instruments  to 
some  of  the  bystanders. 

As  for  Brandeth,  he  hadn't  an  idea  what  was 
to  be  done  with  anything.  But  he  had  a  vote 
in  the  Board.  He  never  forgot  that. 

"  Can't  ye  work  it  a  little,  Mah'sr  Harry!" 
asked  Gregory  Montague. 

"  Dat's  so  !  "  cried  a  dozen  voices.  "  Jist  let's 
see  her  run  a  little,  Mah'sr  Harry,  please ! " 
Even  Kate  wanted  to  see  how  the  things  worked. 

Harry  explained  that  he  couldn't  "  run  it  " 
until  he  had  arranged  the  battery  and  had  made 
a  great  many  preparations,  and  he  greatly  dis- 
appointed the  assembly  by  informing  them  that 
all  that  was  to  be  done  that  day  was  to  put  the 
instruments  in  their  respective  houses  (or  sta- 
tions, as  the  boys  now  began  to  call  the  cabins), 
and  to  put  up  the  cases  which  were  to  protect 
them  when  not  in  use.  These  cases  were  like 
small  closets,  with  movable  tops,  and  there  was 


THE  ARRIVAL.  I  Jl 

great  fear  that  they  would  not  fit  over  the  tables 
that  had  been  brought  from  Hetertown. 

On  the  next  day,  Mr.  Lyons  had  promised 
to  come  over  and  show  them  how  to  begin  the 
work. 

"  There'll  be  plenty  for  you  fellows  to  do," 
said  Harry,  "  when  we  put  up  the  wires." 


CHAPTER  XIX. 
CONSTRUCTING  THE  LINE. 

•"I  "'HE  next  day  was  a  day  of  hard  work  for 
-*•  the  Board  of  Managers.  Mr.  Lyons,  who 
took  the  greatest  interest  in  the  enterprise,  got 
another  operator  to  take  his  place  at  the  Heter- 
town  station,  and  came  over  to  help  the  boys. 

Under  his  direction,  and  with  his  help,  they 
arranged  the  instruments  and  the  batteries,  sunk 
the  ground-wires,  and,  in  a  general  way,  put  the 
office-apparatus  in  working  order.  When  night 
came,  there  were  still  some  things  that  remained 
to  be  done  in  the  two  stations,  but  the  main 
part  of  the  office  arrangements  had  been  satis- 
factorily concluded,  under  Mr.  Lyons's  super- 
vision. 

Now,  it  only  remained  to  put  up  the  wire ; 
and  this  was  a  piece  of  work  that  interested 
the  whole  neighborhood.  There  had  been  look- 
ers-on enough  while  the  instruments  were  being 


CONSTRUCTING  THE   LINE.  173 

put  in  working  order,  but  the  general  mind  did 
not  comprehend  the  mechanism  and  uses  of 
registers  and  keys  and  batteries. 

Any  one,  however,  could  understand  how  a 
telegraphic  wire  was  put  up.  And  what  was 
more,  quite  a  number  of  persons  thought  they 
knew  exactly  how  it  ought  to  be  put  up,  and 
made  no  scruple  of  saying  so. 

Tony  Kirk  was  on  hand — as  it  was  not  tur- 
key season — and  he  made  himself  quite  useful. 
Having  had  some  experience  in  working  under 
surveyors,  he  gave  the  boys  a  good  deal  of  valu- 
able advice,  and,  what  was  of  quite  as  much 
service,  he  proved  very  efficient  in  quieting  the 
zeal  of  some  ambitious,  but  undesirable,  volun- 
teer assistants. 

Certain  straight  pine-trees,  at  suitable  dis- 
tances from  each  other,  and,  as  nearly  as  possi- 
ble, on  a  right  line  between  the  two  cabins,  were 
selected  as  poles,  and  their  tops  were  cut  off 
about  twenty-five  feet  from  the  ground.  All 
trees  and  branches, that  would  be  apt  to  inter- 
fere with  the  wires  were  cut  down,  out  of  the 
way. 

At  one  time — for  this  matter  of  putting  up 


174      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

the  wire  occupied  several  days — there  were  ten 
or  twelve  negro  men  engaged  in  cutting  down 
trees,  and  in  topping  and  trimming  telegraph 
poles. 

Each  one  of  these  men  received  forty  cents 
per  day  from  the  company,  and  found  them- 
selves. It  is  probable  that  if  the  Board  had 
chosen  to  pay  but  twenty  cents,  there  would 
have  been  quite  as  many  laborers,  for  this  was 
novel  and  very  interesting  work,  and  several 
farm-hands  threw  up  their  situations  for  a  day 
or  two  and  came  over  to  "  cut  fur  de  tele- 
graph." 

When  the  poles  were  all  ready  on  each  side 
of  the  creek,  the  insulators,  or  glass  knobs,  to 
which  the  wires  were  to  be  attached,  were  to  be 
fastened  to  them,  a  foot  or  two  from  the  top. 

This  was  to  be  done  under  Harry's  direction, 
who  had  studied  up  the  theory  of  the  operation 
from  his  books  and  under  Mr.  Lyons. 

But  the  actual  work  proved  very  difficult. 
The  first  few  insulators  Harry  put  up  himself. 
He  was  a  good  climber,  but  not  being  provided 
with  the  peculiar  "  climbers  "  used  by  the  men 
who  put  up  telegraph  wires,  he  found  it  very 


CONSTRUCTING   THE   LINE.  1/5 

hard  to  stay  up  at  the  top  of  a  pole  after  he  had 
got  there,  especially  as  he  needed  both  hands  to 
nail  to  the  tree  the  wooden  block  to  which  the 
insulator  was  attached. 

In  fact,  he  made  a  bad  business  of  it,  and 
the  insulators  he  put  up  in  this  way  looked 
"  shackling  poorly,"  to  say  nothing  of  his  trow- 
sers,  which  suffered  considerably  every  time  he 
slipped  part  way  down  a  pole. 

But  here  Tony  Kirk  again  proved  himself  a 
friend  in  need.  He  got  a  wagon,  and  drove 
four  miles  to  a  farm-house,  where  there  was 
a  long,  light  ladder.  This  he  borrowed,  and 
brought  over  to  the  scene  of  operation. 

This  ladder  was  not  quite  long  enough  to 
reach  to  the  height  at  which  Harry  had  fastened 
his  insulators,  but  it  was  generally  agreed  that 
there  was  no  real  necessity  for  putting  them  up 
so  high. 

The  ladder  was  arranged  by  Tony  in  a  very 
ingenious  way.  He  laid  it  on  the  ground,  with 
the  top  at  the  root  of  the  tree  to  be  climbed. 
Then  he  fastened  a  piece  of  telegraph  wire  to 
one  side  of  the  ladder,  passed  it  loosely  around 
the  tree,  and  fastened  it  to  the  other  side. 


1/6      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

Then,  as  the  ladder  was  gradually  raised,  the 
wire  slipped  along  up  the  tree,  and  when  the 
ladder  was  in  position  it  could  not  fall,  although 
it  might  shake  and  totter  a  little.  However, 
strong  arms  at  the  bottom  held  it  pretty  steady, 
and  Harry  was  enabled  to  nail  on  his  insulators 
with  comparative  ease,  and  in  a  very  satisfactory 
manner. 

After  a  while,  Tony  took  his  place,  and  being 
a  fellow  whom  it  was  almost  impossible  to  tire, 
he  finished  the  whole  business  without  assist- 
ance. 

It  may  be  remarked  that  when  Tony  mount- 
ed the  ladder,  he  dispensed  with  the  wire  safe- 
guard, depending  upon  the  carefulness  of  the  two 
negro  men  who  held  the  ladder  from  below. 

The  next  thing  was  to  put  up  the  wire  itself, 
and  this  was  done  in  rather  a  bungling  manner, 
if  this  wire  were  compared  with  that  of  ordinary 
telegraph  lines. 

It  was  found  quite  impossible  to  stretch  the 
wire  tightly  between  the  poles,  as  the  necessary 
appliances  were  wanting. 

Various  methods  of  tightening  were  tried, 
but  none  were  very  successful ;  and  the  wire 


CONSTRUCTING  THE   LINE.  1 77 

hung  in  curves,  some  greater  and  some  less, 
between  the  poles. 

But  what  did  it  matter  ?  There  was  plenty 
of  wire,  and  the  wind  had  not  milch  chance  to 
blow  it  about,  as  it  was  protected  by  the  neigh- 
boring treetops. 

There  was  no  trouble  in  carrying  the  wire  over 
the  creek,  as  the  bridge  was  very  near,  and  as 
trees  close  to  each  bank  had  been  chosen  for 
poles,  and  as  the  creek  was  not  very  wide,  the 
wire  approached  nearer  to  a  straight  line  where 
it  passed  over  the  water  than  it  did  anywhere 
else. 

At  last  all  was  finished.  The  "  main  line  " 
wire  was  attached  to  the  copper  office-wire. 
The  batteries  were  charged,  the  register  was 
arranged  with  its  paper  strip,  and  everything 
was  ready  for  the  transmission  of  messages 
across  Crooked  Creek. 

At  least,  the  Board  hoped  that  everything  was 
ready.  It  couldn't  be  certain  until  a  trial  was 
made. 

The  trial  was  made,  and  everybody  in  the 
neighborhood,  who  could  get  away  from  home, 

came  to  see  it  made. 
3* 


178      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

Harry  was  at  the  instrument  on  the  Ake- 
ville  side,  and  Mr.  Lyons  (the  second  operator 
of  the  company  had  not  been  appointed)  at- 
tended to  the  other  end  of  the  line,  taking  his 
seat  at  the  table  in  Aunt  Judy's  cabin,  where 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Loudon,  Kate,  and  as  many  other 
persons  as  the  room  would  hold,  were  congre- 
gated. 

As  President  of  the  company,  Harry  claim- 
ed the  privilege  of  sending  the  first  message. 

Surrounded  by  the  Board,  and  a  houseful  of 
people  besides,  he  took  his  seat  at  the  instru- 
ment, and  after  looking  about  him  to  see  if 
everything  was  in  proper  order,  he  touched  the 
key  to  "  call  "  the  operator  at  the  other  end. 

But  no  answer  came.  Something  was  wrong. 
Harry  tried  again,  but  still  no  answer.  He 
jumped  up  and  examined  the  instrument  and 
the  battery. 

Everybody  had  something  to  say,  and  some 
advice  to  give. 

Even  old  "  One-eyed  Lewston  "  pushed  his 
way  up  to  Harry,  and  exclaimed  : 

"  Oh,  Mah'sr  Harry  !  Ef  you  want  to  grease 
her,  I  got  some  hog's-lard  up  dar  on  dat  shelf." 


CONSTRUCTING   THE   LINE.  179 

But  Harry  soon  thought  he  found  where  the 
fault  lay,  and,  adjusting  a  screw  or  two,  he  tried 
the  key  again.  This  time  his  call  was  answered. 

"  Click  !  click !  click  !  click  !  "  went  the  instru- 
ment. 

Wild  with  excitement,  everybody  crowded 
closer  to  Harry,  who,  with  somewhat  nervous 
fingers,  slowly  sent  over  the  line  of  the  Crooked 
Creek  Telegraph  Company  its  first  message. 

When  received  on  the  other  side,  and  trans- 
lated from  the  dots  and  dashes  of  the  register,  it 
read  thus: 

To  Kate. — Ho-ow  are  you  ? 

Directly  the  answer  came  swiftly  from  the 
practised  fingers  of  Mr.  Lyons  : 

To  Harry. — I  am  very  well. 

This  message  had  no  sooner  been  received 
and  announced  than  Harry,  followed  by  every 
one  else,  rushed  out  of  the  house,  and  there,  on 
the  other  side  of  the  creek,  he  saw  his  father 
and  mother  and  Kate  and  all  the  rest  hurrying 
out  of  Aunt  Judy's  cabin. 

Mr.  Loudon  waved  his  hat  and  shouted, 
"  Hurrah!" 


180      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

Harry  and  the  Board  answered  with  a  wild 
"  Hurrah !  " 

Then  everybody  took  it  up,  and  the  woods 
rang  with,  "  Hurrah  !  hurrah  !  hurrah  !  " 

The  Crooked  Creek  Telegraph  Line  was  a 
success! 


CHAPTER  XX. 
AN  IMPORTANT  MEETING  OF  THE  BOARD. 

"XT  OW  that  the  telegraphic  line  was  built,  and 
•*•  ^  in  good  working  order,  it  became  imme- 
diately necessary  to  appoint  another  operator,  or 
it  was  quite  evident  that  Harry  could  not  work 
both  ends  of  the  line. 

It  was  easy  enough  to  appoint  an  operator, 
but  not  so  easy  for  such  person  to  work  the  in- 
struments. In  fact,  Harry  was  the  only  indi- 
vidual in  the  company  or  the  neighborhood  who 
understood  the  duties  of  a  telegrapher,  and  his 
opportunities  for  practice  had  been  exceedingly 
limited. 

It  was  determined  to  educate  an  operator, 
and  Harvey  Davis  was  chosen  as  the  most  suita- 
ble individual  for  the  position.  So,  day  after 
day  was  spent  by  Harry  and  Harvey,  the  one 
in  the  cabin  of  "  One-eyed  Lewston,"  and  the 
other  in  that  of  Aunt  Judy,  in  steady,  though 


1 82      WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

often  unsatisfactory,  practice  in  the  transmission 
and  reading  of  telegraphic  messages. 

Of  course,  great  interest  was  taken  in  their 
progress,  and  some  members  of  the  Board  were 
generally  present  at  one  or  the  other  of  the  sta- 
tions. Kate  often  came  over  to  Aunt  Judy's 
cabin,  and  almost  always  there  were  other  per- 
sons present,  each  of  whom,  whenever  there  was 
a  chance,  was  eager  to  send  a  telegraphic  mes- 
sage gratis,  even  if  it  were  only  across  Crooked 
Creek. 

Sometimes  neither  Harry  nor  Harvey  could 
make  out  what  the  other  one  was  trying  to  say, 
and  then  they  would  run  out  of  the  station  and 
go  down  to  the  bank  of  the  creek  and  shout 
across  for  explanations.  A  great  many  more 
intelligible  messages  were  sent  in  this  way,  for 
the  first  few  days,  than  were  transmitted  over 
the  wire. 

Tony  Kirk  remarked,  after  a  performance  of 
this  kind,  "  ft  'pears  to  rne  that  it  wasn't  no  use 
to  put  up  that  ar  wire,  fur  two  fellows  could  a 
been  app'inted,  one  to  stand  on  each  side  o'  the 
creek,  and  holler  the  messages  across." 

But,   of    course,  such   a   proceeding    would 


MEETING   OF   THE   BOARD.  183 

have  been  extremely  irregular.  Tony  was  not 
accustomed  to  the  strict  requirements  of  busi- 
ness. 

Sometimes  the  messages  were  extremely 
complicated.  For  instance,  Harry,  one  day 
about  noon,  carefully  telegraphed  the  following: 

I  would  not  go  home.  Perhaps  you  can  get  something  to 
eat  from  Aunt  Judy. 

As  Harvey  translated  this,  it  read  : 

I  would  gph  go  rapd  gradsvlt  bodgghip  rda  goqbsjcm  eat 
dkpx  Aunt  Judy. 

In  answer  to  this,  Harvey  attempted  to  send 
the  following  message  : 

What  do  you  mean  by  eating  Aunt  Judy  ? 
But  Harry  read1: 

Whatt  a  xdll  mean  rummmlgigdd  Ju  ! 

Harry  thought,  of  course,  that  this  seemed 
like  a  reflection  on  his  motives  in  proposing 
that  Harvey  could  ask  Aunt  Judy  to  give  him 
something  to  eat,  and  so,  of  course,  there  had  to 
be  explanations. 

After  a  time,  however,  the  operators  became 
much  more  expert,  and  although  Harvey  was 


1 84      WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

always  a  little  slow,  he  was  very  careful  and 
very  patient  —  most  excellent  qualities  in  an 
operator  upon  such  a  line. 

The  great  desire  now,  not  only  among  the 
officers  of  the  company,  but  with  many  other 
folks  in  Akeville  and  the  neighborhood,  was  to 
see  the  creek  "  up,"  so  that  travel  across  it 
might  be  suspended,  and  the  telegraphic  busi- 
ness commence. 

To  be  sure,  there  might  be  other  interests 
with  which  a  rise  in  the  creek  would  interfere, 
but  they,  of  course,  were  considered  of  small 
importance,  compared  with  the  success  of  an 
enterprise  like  ^his. 

But  the  season  was  very  dry,  and  the  creek 
very  low.  There  were  places  where  a  circus- 
man  could  have  jumped  across  it  with  all  his 
pockets  full  of  telegraphic  messages. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  affairs  of  the  company 
did  not  look  very  flourishing.  The  men  who 
assisted  in  the  construction  of  the  line  had  not 
been  paid  in  full,  and  they  wanted  their  money. 
Kate  reported  that  the  small  sum  which  had 
been  appropriated  out  of  the  capital  stock  for 
the  temporary  support  of  Aunt  Matilda  was  all 


MEETING   OF  THE   BOARD.  1 8$ 

gone.  This  report  she  made  in  her  capacity  as 
a  special  committee  of  one,  appointed  (by  her- 
self) to  attend  to  the  wants  of  Aunt  Matilda.  As 
the  Treasurer  of  the  company,  she  also  reported 
that  there  was  not  a  cent  in  its  coffers. 

In  this  emergency,  Harry  called  a  meeting 
of  the  Board. 

It  met,  as  this  was  an  important  occasion,  in 
Davis's  corn-house,  fortunately  now  empty.  This 
was  a  cool,  shady  edifice,  and,  though  rather 
small,  was  very  well  ventilated.  The  meetings 
had  generally  been  held  under  some  big  tree,  or 
in  various  convenient  spots  in  the  woods  near  the 
creek,  but  nothing  of  that  kind  would  be  proper 
for  such  a  meeting  as  this,  especially  as  Kate,  as 
Treasurer,  was  to  be  present.  This  was  her  first 
appearance  at  a  meeting  of  the  Board.  The 
boys  sat  on  the  corn-house  floor,  which  had  been 
nicely  swept  out  by  John  William  Webster,  and 
Kate  had  a  chair  on  the  grass,  just  outside  of  the 
door.  There  she  could  hear  and  see  with  great 
comfort  without  "  settin'  on  the  floor  with  a 
passel  of  boys,"  as  Miss  Eliza  Davis,  who  fur- 
nished the  chair,  elegantly  expressed  it. 

When  the  meeting  had  been  called  to  order 


1 86      WHAT  MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

(and  John  William,  who  evinced  a  desire  to 
hang  around  and  find  out  what  was  going  on, 
had  been  discharged  from  further  attendance  on 
the  Board,  or,  in  other  words,  had  been  ordered 
to  "  clear  out  "),  and  the  minutes  of  the  last 
meeting  had  been  read,  and  the  Treasurer  had 
read  her  written  report,  and  the  Secretary  had 
read  his,  an  air  of  despondency  seemed  to  settle 
upon  the  assembly. 

An  empty  corn-house  seemed,  as  Tom  Sel- 
den  remarked,  a  very  excellent  place  for  them 
to  meet. 

The  financial  condition  of  the  company  was 
about  as  follows : 

It  owed  "  One-eyed  Lewston  "  and  Aunt 
Judy  one  dollar  each  for  one  month's  rent  of 
their  homesteads  as  stations,  the  arrangement 
having  been  made  about  the  time  the  instru- 
ments were  ordered. 

It  owed  four  dollars  and  twenty  cents  to  the 
wood-cutters  who  worked  on  the  construction 
of  the  line,  and  two  dollars  and  a  half  for  other 
assistance  at  that  time. 

("  Wish  we  had  done  it  all  ourselves,"  said 
Wilson  Ogden.) 


MEETING  OF  THE   BOARD.  1 87 

It  owed  three  dollars,  balance  on  furniture 
procured  at  Hetertown.  (It  also  owed  one  chair, 
borrowed.) 

It  owed,  for  spikes  and  some  other  hardware 
procured  at  the  store,  one  dollar  and  sixty 
cents. 

In  addition  to  this,  it  owed  John  William 
Webster,  who  had  been  employed  as  a  sort  of 
general  agent  to  run  errands  and  clean  up  things, 
seventy-five  cents — balance  of  salary — and  he 
wanted  his  money.  * 

To  meet  these  demands,  as  was  before  re- 
marked, they  had  nothing. 

Fortunately  nothing  was  owing  for  Aunt 
Matilda's  support,  Harry  and  Kate  having  from 
the  first  determined  never  to  run  in  debt  on  her 
account. 

But,  unfortunately,  poor  Aunt  Matilda's  af- 
fairs were  never  in  so  bad  a  condition.  The 
great  interest  which  Kate  and  Harry  had  taken 
in  the  telegraph  line  had  prevented  them  from 
paying  much  attention  to  their  ordinary  methods 
of  making  money,  and  now  that  the  company's 
appropriation  was  spent,  there  seemed  to  be  no 


1 88      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN  EXPECTED. 

immediate  method  of  getting  any  money  for  the 
old  woman's  present  needs. 

This  matter  was  not  strictly  the  business 
of  the  Board,  but  they  nevertheless  consider- 
ed it. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 
A  LAST  RESORT. 

r  I  "'HE  Board  was  fully  agreed  that  something 
•*-  must  be  done  to  relieve  Aunt  Matilda's 
present  necessities,  but  what  to  do  did  not  seem 
very  clear. 

Wilson  Ogden  proposed  issuing  some  kind 
of  scrip  or  bonds,  redeemable  in  six  or  seven 
months,  when  the  company  should  be  on  a  pay- 
ing basis. 

"  I  believe,"  said  he,  "  that  Mr.  Darby  would 
take  these  bonds  at  the  store  for  groceries  and 
things,  and  we  might  pay  him  interest,  besides 
redeeming  the  bonds  when  they  came  due." 

This  was  rather  a  startling  proposition.  No 
one  had  suspected  Wilson  of  having  such  a 
financial  mind. 

"I  don't  know,"  said  Harry,  "how  that 
would  work.  Mr.  Darby  might  not  be  willing 
to  take  the  bonds  ;  and  besides  that,  it  seems  to 


IQO     WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

me  that  the  company  ought  not  to  make  any 
more  promises  to  pay  when  it  owes  so  much 
already." 

"  But  you  see  that  would  be  different,"  said 
Wilson.  "  What  we  owe  now  we  ought  to  pay 
right  away.  The  bonds  would  not  have  to  be 
paid  for  ever  so  long." 

"  That  may  be  pretty  sharp  reasoning,"  re- 
marked Tom  Selden,  "  but  I  can't  see  into  it." 

"  It  would  be  all  the  same  as  running  in 
debt  for  Aunt  Matilda,  wouldn't  it?"  asked 
Kate. 

"  Yes,"  said  Wilson,  "  a  kind  of  running  in 
debt,  but  not  exactly  the  common  way.  You 
see—" 

"  But  if  it's  any  kind  at  all,  I'm  against  it," 
said  Kate,  quickly.  "We're  not  going  to  sup- 
port Aunt  Matilda  that  way." 

This  settled  the  matter.  To  be  sure,  Kate 
had  no  vote  in  the  Board  ;  but  this  was  a  sub- 
ject in  which  she  had  what  might  be  considered 
to  be  a  controlling  interest,  and  the  bond 
project  was  dropped  . 

Various  schemes  were  now  proposed,  but 
there  were  objections  to  all  of  them.  Every  one 


A  LAST  RESORT.  19! 

was  agreed  that  it  was  very  unfortunate  that 
this  emergency  should  have  arisen  just  at  this 
time,  because  as  soon  as  the  company  got  into 
good  working  order,  and  the  creek  had  been  up 
a  few  times  it  was  probable  that  Aunt  Matilda 
would  really  have  more  money  than  she  would 
absolutely  need. 

"  You  ought  to  look  out,  Harry  and  Kate," 
said  Harvey  Davis,  "  that  all  the  darkies  she 
knows  don't  come  and  settle  down  on  her  and 
live  off  her.  She's  a  great  old  woman  for  having 
people  around  her,  even  now." 

"  Well,"  said  Kate,  "  she  has  a  right  to  have 
company  if  she  wants  to,  and  can  afford  it.': 

"  Yes,"  said  Tom  Selden;  "  but  having  com- 
pany's very  different  from  having  a  lot  of  good- 
for-nothing  darkies  eating  her  out  of  house  and 
home." 

"  She  won't  have  anything  of  that  sort,"  said 
Harry.  "  I'll  see  that  her  money's  spent  right." 

"  But  if  it's  her  money,"  said  Harvey,  "  she 
can  spend  it  as  she  chooses." 

A  discussion  here  followed  as  to  the  kind  of 
influence  that  ought  to  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
Aunt  Matilda  to  induce  her  to  make  a  judicious 


192   WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

use  of  her  income  ;  but  Harry  soon  interrupted 
the  arguments,  with  the  remark  that  they  had 
better  not  bother  themselves  about  what  Aunt 
Matilda  should  do  with  her  money  when  she  got 
it,  until  they  had  found  out  some  way  of  pre- 
venting her  from  starving  to  death  while  she  was 
waiting  for  it. 

This  was  evidently  good  common  sense,  but 
it  put  a  damper  on  the  spirits  of  the  Board. 

There  was  nothing  new  to  be  said  on  the 
main  question,  and  it  was  now  growing  toward 
supper-time  ;  so  the  meeting  adjourned. 

On  their  way  home,  Harry  said  to  Kate, 
"  Has  Aunt  Matilda  anything  to  eat  at  all  ?  " 

"  Oh  yes  ;  she  has  enough  for  her  supper  to- 
night, and  for  breakfast,  too,  if  nobody  comes  to 
see  her.  But  that's  all." 

"  All  right,  then,"  said  Harry. 

"  I  don't  think  it  is  all  right,"  replied  Kate. 
"  What's  two  meals,  I'd  like  to  know  ?  " 

"  Two  meals  are  very  good  things,  provided 
you  don't  take  them  both  at  once,"  said  Harry. 
And  he  began  to  whistle. 

The  next  day,  Harry  went  off  and  staid  until 
dinner-time. 


A  LAST  RESORT.  193 

Kate  could  not  imagine  where  he  had  gone. 
He  was  not  with  the  Board,  she  knew,  for  Har- 
vey Davis  had  been  inquiring  for  him. 

Just  before  dinner  he  made  his  appearance. 

Kate  was  in  the  house,  but  he  hurried  her 
out  under  the  catalpa-tree." 

"  Look  here  !  "  said  he,  putting  his  hand  in 
his  pocket  and  pulling  out  several  "  greenbacks." 
"  I  reckon  that'll  keep  Aunt  Matilda  until  the 
company  begins  to  make  money." 

Kate  opened  her  eyes  their  very  widest. 

"  Why,  where  on  earth  did  you  get  all  that 
money,  Harry?  Is  it  yours?  " 

"  Of  course  it's  mine,"  said  Harry.  "  I  sold 
my  gun." 

"  Oh,  Harry  !  "  and  the  tears  actually  came 
into  Kate's  eyes. 

"  Well,  I  wouldn't  cry  about  it,"  said  Harry. 
"  There's  nothing  to  shoot  now  ;  and  when  we 
get  rich  I  can  buy  it  back  again,  or  get  another." 

"  Get  rich  !  "  said  Kate.     "  I  don't  see  how 
we're  going  to  do  that ;  especially  when  it's  such 
dreadfully  dry  weather." 
Q 


CHAPTER  XXII. 
A  QUANDARY. 

A  BOUT  a  week  after  the  meeting  of  the 
*  ^  Board  in  the  Davis  corn-house,  old  Miles, 
the  mail-rider,  came  galloping  up  to  Mr.  Lou- 
don's  front  gate.  The  family  were  at  breakfast, 
but  Harry  and  Kate  jumped  up  and  ran  to  the 
door,  when  they  saw  Miles  coming,  with  his  sad- 
dle-bags flapping  behind  him.  No  one  had  ever 
before  seen  Miles  ride  so  fast.  A  slow  trot,  or 
rather  a  steady  waddle,  was  the  pace  that  he 
generally  preferred. 

"  Hello,  Mah'sr  Harry,"  shouted  old  Miles, 
"  de  creek's  up !  Can't  git  across  dar,  no  how  ?  " 

This  glorious  news  for  the  Crooked  Creek 
Telegraph  Company  was,  indeed,  true  !  There 
had  been  wet  weather  for  several  days,  and 
although  the  rain-fall  had  not  been  great  in  the 
level  country  about  Akeville,  it  had  been  very 
heavy  up  among  the  hills  ;  and  the  consequence 


A   QUANDARY.  195 

was,  that  the  swollen  hill-streams,  or  "  branches  " 
as  they  are  called  in  that  part  of  the  country,  had 
rushed  down  and  made  Crooked  Creek  rise  in  a 
hurry.  It  seemed  to  be  always  ready  to  rise  in 
this  way,  whenever  it  had  a  chance. 

Now  the  company  could  go  to  work  !  Now 
it  could  show  the  world,  or  as  much  of  the  world 
as  chose  to  take  notice,  the  advantages  of 
having  a  telegraph  line  across  a  creek  in  time 
of  freshets. 

Harry  was  all  alive  with  excitement.  He 
sent  for  Harvey  Davis,  and  had  old  Selim  sad- 
dled as  quickly  as  possible. 

"  H'yar's  de  letters  and  telegrums,  Mah'sr 
Harry,"  said  Miles,  unlocking  his  saddle-bags 
and  taking  out  a  bundle  of  letters  and  some  tele- 
grams, written  on  the  regular  telegraphic  blanks 
and  tied  up  in  a  little  package. 

As  the  mail  was  a  private  one,  and  old  Miles 
was  known  to  be  perfectly  honest,  he  carried  the 
key  and  attended  personally  to  the  locking  and 
unlocking  of  his  saddle-bags. 

"  But  I  don't  want  the  letters,  Miles,"  said 
Harry.  "  I've  nothing  to  do  with  them.  Give 
me  the  telegrams,  and  I'll  send  them  across." 


196      WHAT  MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

"Don't  want  de  letters?"  cried  Miles,  his 
eyes  and  mouth  wide  open  in  astonishment. 
"  Why,  I  can't  carry  de  letters  ober  no  mor'n  I 
kin  de.  telegrums." 

"  Well,  neither  can  I,"  said  Harry. 

"  Den  what's  de  use  ob  dat  wire  ?  "  exclaimed 
Miles.  "  I  thought  you  uns  ud  send  de  letters 
an'  all  ober  dat  wire  ?  Dere's  lots  more  letters 
dan  telegrums." 

"  I  know  that,'!  said  Harry,  hurriedly ;  "  but 
we  can't  send  letters.  Give  the  telegraphic 
messages,  and  you  go -back  to  the  mines  with 
the  letters,  and  if  there's  anything  in  them  that 
they  want  to  telegraph,  let  them  write,  out  the 
messages,  and  you  bring  them  over  to  Lewston's 
cabin." 

Harry  took  the  telegrams,  and  old  Miles  rode 
off,  very  much  disturbed  in  his  mind.  His  con- 
fidence in  the  utility  of  the  telegraph  company 
was  wofully  shaken. 

By  this  time  Harvey  had  arrived  on  a  mule, 
and  the  two  operators  dashed  away  as  fast  as 
their  animals  would  carry  them. 

As  they  galloped  along,  Harry  shouted  to 


A   QUANDARY.  197 

Harvey,  who  kept  ahead  most  of  the  time,  for 
his  mule  was  faster  than  Selim  : 

"  Hello,  Harvey  !  If  Miles  couldn't  get  across, 
how  can  either  of  us  go  over?  "  ! 

"  Oh,  I  reckon  the  creek  isn't  much  up 
yet,"  answered  Harvey.  "  Miles  is  easily  fright- 
ened." 

So,  on  they  rode,  hoping  for  the  best ;  but 
when  they  reached  the  creek  they  saw,  to  their 
dismay,  that  the  water  was  much  higher  already 
than  it  usually  rose  in  the  summer-time.  The 
low  grounds  on  each  side  were  overflowed,  and 
nothing  could  be  seen  of  the  bridge  but  the  tops 
of  two  upright  timbers  near  its  middle. 

It  was  certainly  very  unfortunate  that  both 
the  operators  were  on  the  same  side  of  the 
stream  ! 

"  This  is  a  pretty  piece  of  business,'  cried 
Harry.  "  I  didn't  expect  the  creek  to  get  up  so 
quickly  as  this.  I  was  down  here  yesterday,  and 
it  hadn't  risen  at  all.  I  tell  you,  Harvey,  you 
ought  to  live  on  the  other  side." 

"  Or  else  you  ought,"  said  Harvey. 

"  No,"  said  Harry ;  "  this  is  my  station." 

Harvey  had  no  answer  ready  for  this,  but  as 


198      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

they  were  hurriedly  fastening  Selim  and  the 
mule  to  trees  near  Lewston's  cabin,  he  said  : 

"  Perhaps  Mr.  Lyons  may  come  down  and 
work  the  other  end  of  the  line." 

"  He  can't  get  off,"  said  Harry.  "  He  has 
his  own  office  to  attend  to.  And,  besides,  that 
wouldn't  do.  We  must  work  our  own  line, 
especially  at  the  very  beginning.  It  would  look 
nice — now,  wouldn't  it  ?  — to  wait  until  Mr. 
Lyons  could  come  over  from  Hetertown  before 
we  could  commence  operations !  " 

"  Well,  what  can  we  do  ?  "  asked  Harvey. 

"  Why,  one  of  us  must  get  across,  somehow." 

"  I  don't  see  how  it's  going  to  be  done,"  said 
Harvey,  as  they  ran  down  to  the  edge  of  the 
water.  "  I  reckon  we'll  have  to  holler  our  mes- 
sages across,  as  Tony  said  ;  only  there  isn't  any- 
body to  holler  to." 

"  I  don't  know  how  it's  to  be  done  either," 
said  Harry  ;  "  but  one  of  us  must  get  over,  some 
way  or  other." 

"  Couldn't  we  wade  to  the  bridge,"  asked 
Harvey,  "  and  then  walk  over  on  it  ?  I  don't 
believe  it's  more  than  up  to  our  waists  on  the 
bridge." 


A   QUANDARY.  199 

"You  don't  know  how  deep  it  is,"  said  Har- 
ry ;  '  and  when  you  get  to  the  bridge,  ten  to 
one  more  than  half  the  planks  have  been  floated 
off,  and  you'd  go  slump  to  the  bottom  of  the 
creek  before  you  knew  it.  There's  no  way  but 
to  get  a  boat." 

"  I  don't  know  where  you're  going  to  find 
one,"  said  Harvey.  "  There's  a  boat  up  at  the 
mill-pond,  but  you  couldn't  get  it  out  and  down 
here  in  much  less  than  a  day." 

"  John  Walker  has  his  boat  afloat  again," 
said  Harry,  "  but  that's  over  on  the  other  side. 
What  a  nuisance  it  is  that  there  isn't  anybody 
over  there  !  If  we  didn't  want  'em,  there'd  be 
about  sixty  or  seventy  darkies  hanging  about 
now." 

"  Oh,  no  !  "  said  Harvey,  "  not  so  many  as 
that ;  not  over  forty-seven." 

"  I'm  going  over  to  Lewston's.  Perhaps  he 
knows  of  a  boat,"  said  Harry;  and  away  he  ran. 

But  Lewston  was  not  in  his  cabin,  and  so 
Harry  hurried  along  a  road  in  the  woods  that 
led  by  another  negro  cabin  about  a  half-mile 
away,  thinking  that  the  old  man  had  gone  off 


2OO      WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

in  that  direction.  Every  minute  or  two  he 
shouted  at  the  top  of  his  voice,  "  Oh,  Lewston  !  " 

Very  soon  he  heard  some  one  shouting  in 
reply,  and  he  recognized  Lewston's  voice.  It 
seemed  to  come  from  the  creek. 

Thereupon,  Harry  made  his  way  through  the 
trees  and  soon  caught  sight  of  the  old  colored 
man.  He  was  in  a  boat,  poling  his  way  along  in 
the  shallow  water  as  close  to  dry  land  as  the 
woods  allowed  him,  and  sometimes,  where  the 
trees  were  wide  apart,  sending  the  boat  right 
between  some  of  their  tall  trunks. 

"  Hello,  Lewston,"  cried  Harry,  running  as 
near  as  he  could  go  without  getting  his  shoes 
wet,  for  the  water  ran  up  quite  a  distance 
among  the  trees  in  some  places.  "  What  are 
you  about  ?  Where  did  you  get  that  boat  ?  I 
want  a  boat." 

"  Dat's  jist  what  I  thought,  Mah'sr  Harry," 
said  Lewston,  still  poling  away  as  hard  as  he 
could.  "  I  know  de  compuny'd  want  to  git 
ober  de  creek,  an'  I  jist  went  up  to  Hiram  An- 
derson's and  borrowed  his  ole  boat.  Ise  been 
a-bailing  her  out  all  de  mornin'." 

"  You're   a  trump,    Lewston,"    said    Harry. 


A  QUANDARY.  2OI 

"  Pole  her  down  opposite  your  house,  and  then 
one  of  us  will  go  over.  Why  don't  you  go  out 
farther  ?  You  can't  get  along  half  as  fast  in  here 
by  the  trees  and  hummocks  as  you  could  in 
deeper  water." 

"  You  don't  ketch  me  out  dar  in  dat  runnin' 
water,"  said  Lewston.  "  I'd  be  in  the  mid- 
dle afore  I  knowed  it,  and  dis  pole's  pooty  short." 

"  Well,  come  along  as  fast  as  you  can,"  cried 
Harry,  "  and  I'll  run  down  to  your  house  and 
get  your  axe  to  cut  a  longer  pole." 

By  the  time  Harry  had  found  a  tall  young 
sapling,  and  had  cut  it  down  and  trimmed  it  off, 
Lewston  arrived  with  the  boat. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

CROSSING  THE  CREEK. 

"  "NT  ®^'  then'"  said  Harry>  "  here's  the  boat 
•••  ^  and  a  good  pole,  and  you've  nothing  to 
do,  Harvey,  but  just  to  get  in  and  push  your- 
self ovet  to  your  station  as  fast  as  you  can. 

But  the  situation  did  not  seem  to  strike  Har- 
vey very  favorably.  He  looked  rather  dissatis- 
fied with  the  arrangement  made  for  him. 

"  I  can't  swim,"  he  said.  "  At  least,  not 
much,  you  know." 

"  Well,  who  wants  you  to  swim  ?  "  said  Harry, 
laughing.  "  That's  a  pretty  joke.  Are  you 
thinking  of  swimming  across,  and  towing  the 
boat  after  you  ?  You  can  push  her  over  easy 
enough  ;  that  pole  will  reach  the  bottom  any- 
where." 

"  Dat's  so,"  said  old  Lewston.  "  It'll  touch 
de  bottom  ob  de  water,  but  I  don't  know  'bout 
de  bottom  ob  de  mud.  Ye  musn't  push  her 


CROSSING  THE  CREEK.  2O3 

down  too  deep.  Dar's  'bout  as  much  mud  as 
water  out  dar  in  de  creek. 

The  more  they  talked  about  the  matter,  the 
greater  became  Harvey's  disinclination  to  go 
over.  He  was  not  a  coward,  but  he  was  not 
used  to  the  water  or  the  management  of  a  boat, 
and  the  trip  seemed  much  more  difficult  to  him 
than  it  would  have  appeared  to  a  boy  accus- 
tomed to  boating. 

"  I  tell  you  what  we'll  do,"  cried  Harry,  at 
last.  "  You  take  my  station,  Harvey,  and  I'll  go 
over  and  work  your  end  of  the  line." 

There  was  no  opposition  to  this  plan,  and  so 
Harry  hurried  off  with  Harvey  to  Lewston's  cabin 
and  helped  him  to  make  the  connections  and 
get  the  line  in  working  order  at  that  end,  and 
then  he  ran  down  to  the  boat,  jumped  in,  and 
Lewston  pushed  him  off. 

Harry  poled  the  boat  along  quite  easily 
through  the  shallow  water,  and  when  he  got 
farther  out  he  found  that  he  proceeded  with 
still  greater  ease,  only  he  did  not  go  straight 
across,  but  went  a  little  too  much  down  stream. 

But  he  pushed  out  strongly  toward  the 
opposite  shore,  and  soon  reached  the  middle  of 


2O4      WHAT  MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

the  creek.  Then  he  began  to  go  down  stream 
very  fast  indeed.  Push  and  pole  as  he  would, 
he  seemed  to  have  no  control  whatever  over  the 
boat.  He  had  had  no  idea  that  the  current 
'would  be  so  strong. 

On  he  went,  right  down  toward  the  bridge, 
and  as  the  boat  swept  over  it,  one  end  struck  an 
upright  beam  that  projected  above  the  water, 
and  the  clumsy  craft  was  jerked  around  with 
such  violence  that  Harry  nearly  tumbled  into  the 
creek. 

He  heard  Lewston  and  Harvey  shouting  to 
him,  but  he  paid  no  attention  to  them.  He 
was  working  with  all  his  strength  to  get  the 
boat  out  of  the  current  and  into  shallower  water. 
But  as  he  found  that  he  was  not  able  to  do  that, 
he  made  desperate  efforts  to  stop  the  boat  by 
thrusting  his  pole  into  the  bottom.  If  was  not 
easy  to  get  the  pole  into  the  mud,  the  current 
was  so  strong ;  but  he  succeeded  at  last,  by 
pushing  it  out  in  front  of  him,  in  forcing  it  into 
the  bottom ;  and  then,  in  a  moment,  it  was 
jerked  out  of  his  hand,  as  the  boat  swept  on, 
and,  a  second  time,  he  came  near  tumbling  over- 
board. 


CROSSING  THE   CREEK.  2O5 

Now  he  was  helpless.  No,  there  was  the 
short  pole  that  Lewston  had  left  in  the  boat. 

He  picked  it  up,  but  he  could  do  nothing 
with  it.  If  it  had  been  an  oar,  now,  it  might 
have  been  of  some  use.  He  tried  to  pull  up  the 
seat,  but  it  was  nailed  fast. 

On  he  rapidly  floated,  down  the  middle  of 
the  stream  ;  the  boat  sometimes  sidewise,  some- 
times with  one  end  foremost,  and  sometimes  the 
other.  Very  soon  he  lost  sight  of  Lewston  and 
Harvey,  and  the  last  he  saw  of  them  they  were 
hurrying  by  the  edge  of  the  water,  in  the  woods. 
Now  he  sat  down,  and  looked  about  him.  The 
creek  appeared  to  be  getting  wider  and  wider, 
and  he  thought  that  if  he  went  on  at  that  rate 
he  must  soon  come  to  the  river.  The  country 
seemed  unfamiliar  to  him.  He  had  never  seen 
it,  from  the  water,  when  it  was  overflowed  in  this 
way. 

He  passed  a  wide  stretch  of  cultivated  fields, 
mostly  planted  in  tobacco,  but  he  could  not 
recollect  what  farmer  had  tobacco  down  by  the 
creek  this  year.  There  were  some  men  at  work 
on  a  piece  of  rising  ground,  but  they  were  a  long 


2O6   WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

way  off.  Still,  Harry  shouted  to  them,  but  they 
did  not  appear  to  hear  him. 

Then  he  passed  on  among  the  trees  again, 
bumping  against  stumps,  turning  and  twisting, 
but  always  keeping  out  in  the  middle  of  the 
current.  He  began  to  be  very  uneasy,  especially 
as  he  now  saw,  what  he  had  not  noticed  before, 
that  the  boat  was  leaking  badly. 

He  made  up  his  mind  that  he  must  do  some- 
thing soon,  even  if  he  had  to  take  off  his  clothes 
and  jump  in  and  try  to  swim  to  shore.  But  this, 
he  was  well  aware,  would  be  hard  work  in  such  a 
current. 

Looking  hurriedly  around,  he  saw,  a  short 
distance  before  him,  a  tree  that  appeared  to 
stand  almost  in  the  middle  of  the  creek,  with  its 
lower  branches  not  very  high  above  the  water. 
The  main  current  swirled  around  this  tree,  and 
the  boat  was  floating  directly  toward  it. 

Harry's  mind  was  made  up  in  an  instant. 
He  stood  up  on  the  seat,  and  as  the  boat  passed 
under  the  tree  he  seized  the  lowest  branch. 

In  a  moment  the  boat  was  jerked  from  under 
his  feet,  and  he  hung  suspended  over  the  rushing 
water. 


CROSSING  THE   CREEK.  2O/ 

He  gripped  the  branch  with  all  his  strength, 
and  giving  his  legs  a  swing,  got  his  feet  over  it. 
Then,  after  two  or  three  attempts,  he  managed 
to  draw  himself  up  and  get  first  one  leg  and  then 
his  whole  body  over  the  branch.  Then  he  sat 
up  and  shuffled  along  to  the  trunk,  against  which 
he  leaned  with  one  arm  around  it,  all  in  a  per- 
spiration, and  trembling  with  the  exertion  and 
excitement. 

When  he  had  rested  awhile,  he  stood  up  on 
the  limb  and  looked  toward  the  land.  There,  to 
his  joy,  he  saw,  at  a  little  distance,  a  small  log- 
house,  and  there  was  some  one  living  in  it,  for 
he  saw  smoke  coming  from  the  log  and  mud 
chimney  that  was  built  up  against  one  end  of 
the  cabin. 

Harry  gave  a  great  shout,  and  then  another, 
and  another,  and  presently  a  negro  woman  came 
out  of  the  cabin  and  looked  out  over  the  creek. 
Then  three  colored  children  came  tumbling  out, 
and  they  looked  out  over  the  creek. 

Then  Harry  shouted  again,  and  the  woman 
saw  him. 

"  Hello,  dar  !  "  she  cried.     "  Who's  dat  ?  " 

"  It's  me  !     Harry  Loudon." 


208      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

"Harry  Loudon?"  shouted  the  woman, 
running  down  to  the  edge  of  the  water.  "  Mah'sr 
John  Loudon's  son  Harry  ?  What  you  doin' 
dar  ?  Is  you  fishin'  ?  " 

"  Fishing!  "  cried  Harry.  "  No  !  I  want  to 
get  ashore.  Have  you  a  boat  ?  " 

"  A  boat !  Lors  a  massy  !  I  got  no  boat, 
Mah'sr  Harry.  How  did  ye  git  dar  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  got  adrift,  and  my  boat's  gone  !  Isn't 
there  any  man  about  ?  " 

"  No  man  about  here,"  said  the  woman. 
"  My  ole  man's  gone  off  to  de  railroad.  But 
he'll  be  back  dis  evenin'." 

"  I  can't  wait  here  till  he  comes,"  cried 
Harry.  "  Haven't  you  a  rope  and  some  boards 
to  make  a  raft  ?  " 

"  Lor',  no  !  Mah'sr  Harry.     I  got  no  boards." 

"  Tell  ye  what  ye  do,  dar,"  shouted"  the  bigr 
gest  boy,  a  woolly-heady  urchin,  with  nothing 
on  but  a  big  pair  of  trousers  that  came  up  under 
his  arms  and  were  fastened  over  his  shoulders 
by  two  bits  of  string,  "jist  you  come  on  dis 
side  and  jump  down,  an'  slosh  ashore." 

"  It's  too  deep,"  cried  Harry. 


CROSSING  THE  CREEK.  209 

"  No,  'tain't,"  said  the  boy.  "  I  sloshed  out 
to  dat  tree  dis  mornin'." 

"  You  did,  you  Pomp !  "  cried  his  mother. 
"  Oh  !  I'll  lick  ye  fur  dat,  when  I  git  a-hold 
of  ye!" 

"  Did  you,  really?"  cried  Harry. 

"  Yes,  I  did,"  shouted  the  undaunted  Pomp. 
"  I  sloshed  out  dar  an'  back  agin." 

"  But  the  water's  higher  now,"  said  Harry. 

"  No,  'tain't,"  said  the  woman.  "  'Tain't  riz 
much  dis  mornin'.  Done  all  de  risin'  las'  night. 
Dat  tree's  jist  on  de  edge  of  de  creek  bank.  If 
Pomp  could  git  along  dar,  you  kin,  Mah'sr 
Harry !  Did  ye  go  out  dar,  sure  'nuff,  you 
Pomp  ?  Mind,  if  ye  didn't,  I'll  lick  ye  !  " 

"  Yes,  I  did,"  said  Pomp  ;  "  clar  out  dar  an' 
back  agin." 

"  Then  I'll  try  it,"  cried  Harry ;  and  clam- 
bering around  the  trunk  of  the  tree,  he  jumped 
off  as  far  as  he  could  toward  shore. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
THE  FIRST  BUSINESS  TELEGRAMS. 

\\  7 HEN  Harry  jumped  from  the  tree,  he 
*  *  came  down  on  his  feet,  in  water  not  quite 
up  to  his  waist,  and  then  he  pushed  in  toward 
land  as  fast  as  he  could  go.  In  a  few  minutes, 
he  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  colored  family,  his 
trousers  and  coat-tails  dripping,  and  his  shoes 
feeling  like  a  pair  of  wet  sponges. 

"  Ye  ought  to  have  rolled  up  yer  pants  and 
tooked  off  yer  shoes  and  stockin's  afore  ye 
jumped,  Mah'sr  Harry,"  said  the  woman. 

"  I  wish  I  had  taken  off  my  shoes,"  said 
Harry. 

The  woman  at  whose  cabin  Harry  found 
himself  was  Charity  Allen,  and  a  good,  sensible 
woman  she  was.  She  made  Harry  hurry  into 
the  house,  and  she  got  him  her  husband's  Sun- 
day trousers,  which  she  had  just  washed  and 
ironed,  and  insisted  on  his  putting  them  on, 


THE   FIRST   BUSINESS  TELEGRAMS.  211 

while  she  dried  his  own.  She  hung  his  stock- 
ings and  his  coat  before  the  fire,  and  made  one 
of  the  boys  rub  his  shoes  with  a  cloth  so  as  to 
dry  them  as  much  as  possible  before  putting 
them  near  the  fire. 

Harry  was  very  impatient  to  be  off,  but 
Charity  was  so  certain  that  he  would  catch  his 
death  of  cold  if  he  started  before  his  clothes 
were  dry  that  he  allowed  himself  to  be  per- 
suaded to  wait. 

And  then  she  fried  some  salt  pork,  on  which, 
with  a  great  piece  of  corn-bread,  he  made  a 
hearty  meal,  for  he  was  very  hungry. 

"  Have  you  had  your  dinner,  Charity?"  he 
asked. 

"  Oh,  yes,  Mah'sr  Harry  ;  long  time  ago,"  she 
said. 

"  Then  it  must  be  pretty  late,"  said  Harry, 
anxiously. 

"  Oh,  no  !  "  said  she ;  "  'tain't  late.  I  reckon 
it  can't  be  much  mor'  'n  four  o'clock." 

"  Four  o'clock!  "  shouted  Harry,  jumping  up 
in  such  a  hurry  that  he  like  to  have  tripped  him- 
self in  Uncle  Oscar's  trousers,  which  were  much 
too  long  for  him.  "  Why,  that's  dreadfully  late. 


212      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN  EXPECTED. 

Where  can  the  day  have  gone  ?  I  must  be  off, 
right  away !  " 

So  much  had  happened  since  morning,  that 
it  was  no  wonder  that  Harry  had  not  noticed 
how  the  hours  had  flown. 

The  ride  to  the  creek,  the  discussions  there, 
the  delay  in  getting  the  boat,  the  passage  down 
the  stream,  which  was  much  longer  than  Harry 
had  imagined,  and  the  time  he  had  spent  in  the 
tree  and  in  the  cabin,  had,  indeed,  occupied 
the  greater  part  of  the  day. 

And  even  now  he  was  not  able  to  start. 
Though  he  urged  her  as  much  as  he  could,  he 
could  not  make  Charity  understand  that  it  was 
absolutely  necessary  that  he  must  have  his 
clothes,  wet  or  dry ;  and  he  did  not  get  them 
until  they  were  fit  to  put  on.  And  then  his 
shoes  were  not  dry,  but,  as  he  intended  to  run 
all  the  way  to  Aunt  Judy's  cabin,  that  did  not 
matter  so  much. 

"  How  far  is  it  to  Aunt  Judy's?"  he  asked, 
when  at  last  he  was  ready  to  start. 

"  Well,  I  reckons  it's  'bout  six  or  seben  miles, 
Mah'sr  Harry,"  said  Charity. 


THE   FIRST   BUSINESS  TELEGRAMS.  213 

"  Six  or  seven  miles !  "  exclaimed  Harry. 
"  When  shall  I  get  there !  " 

"  Now  don't  hurry  and  git  yese'f  all  in  a 
heat,"  said  Charity.  "  Jist  keep  along  dis  path 
fru  de  woods  till  ye  strike  de  road,  and  that'll 
take  ye  straight  to  de  bridge.  Wish  I  had  a 
mule  to  len'  ye." 

"  Good-by,  Charity,"  cried  Harry.  "  I'm 
ever  so  much  obliged."  And  hurriedly  searching 
his  vest  pockets,  he  found  a  ten-cent  note  and  a 
few  pennies,  which  he  gave  to  the  children,  who 
grinned  in  silent  delight,  and  then  he  started 
off  on  a  run. 

But  he  did  not  run  all  the  way. 

Before  long  he  began  to  tire  a  little,  and 
then  he  settled  down  into  a  fast  walk.  He  felt 
that  he  must  hurry  along  as  fast  as  he  was  able. 
The  fortunes  of  the  Crooked  Creek  Telegraph 
Company  depended  upon  him.  If  the  company 
failed  in  this,  its  first  opportunity,  there  was  no 
hope  for  it. 

So  on  he  walked,  and  before  very  long  he 
struck  the  main  road.  Here  he  thought  he 
should  be  able  to  get  along  faster,  but  there  was 
no  particular  reason  for  it.  In  fact,  the  open 


214      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

road  was  .rather  rougher  than  that  through  the 
woods.  But  it  was  cooler  here  than  under  the 
heavy,  overhanging  trees. 

And  now  Harry  first  noticed  that  the  sun 
was  not  shining.  At  least,  it  was  behind  the 
western  hills.  It  must  be  growing  very  late,  he 
thought. 

On  he  went,  for  a  mile  or  two,  and  then  it 
began  to  grow  dusky.  Night  was  surely  coming 
on. 

At  a  turn  in  the  wood,  he  met  a  negro  boy 
with  a  tin  bucket  on  his  head.  Harry  knew 
him.  It  was  Tom  Haskins. 

"  Hello,  Tom  ! "  said  Harry,  stopping  for  a 
moment ;  "  I  want  you." 

"  What  you  want,  Mah'sr  Harry  ? "  asked 
Tom. 

"  I  want  you  to  come  to  Aunt  Judy's  cabin 
and  carry  some  messages  over  to  Hetertown  for 
me." 

"  When  you  want  me  ? "  said  Tom  ;  "  to- 
morrer  mornin'  ?  " 

"  No ;  I  want  you  to-night.  Right  away. 
I'll  pay  you." 

"  To-night  ?  "    cried    the    astonished    Tom. 


THE  FIRST   BUSINESS   TELEGRAMS. 

'  Go  ober  dar  in  de  dark  !  Can't  do  dat,  Mah'sr 
Harry.  Ise  Traid  to  go  fru  de  woods  in  de 
dark." 

"  Nonsense,"  cried  Harry.  "  Nothing's  going 
to  hurt  you.  Come  on  over." 

"  Can't  do  it,  Mah'sr  Harry,  no  how,"  said 
Tom.  "  Ise  got  ter  tote  dis  hyar  buttermilk 
home ;  dey's  a-waitin'  fur  it  now.  But  p'r'aps 
Jim'll  go  fur  you.  He  kin  borrer  a  mule  and  go 
fur  you,  Mah'sr  Harry,  I  'spects." 

"  Well,  tell  Jim  to  get  a  mule  and  come  to 
Aunt  Judy's  just  as  quick  as  he  can.  I'll  pay 
him  right  well." 

"  Dat's  so,  Mah'sr  Harry  ;  Jim'll  go  'long  fur 
ye.  I'll  tell  him." 

"  Now  be  quick  about  it,"  cried  Harry.  "  I'm 
in  a  great  hurry."  And  off  he  started  again. 

But  as  he  hurried  along,  his  legs  began  to 
feel  stiff  and  his  feet  were  sore.  He  had  walked 
very  fast,  so  far,  but  now  he  was  obliged  to 
slacken  his  pace. 

And  it  grew  darker  and  darker.  Harry 
thought  he  had  never  seen  night  come  on  so 
fast.  It  was  certainly  a  long  distance  from  Char- 
it}  's  cabin  to  Aunt  Judy's. 


2l6      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

At  last  he  reached  the  well-known  woods 
near  the-  bridge,  and  off  in  a  little  opening  he 
saw  Aunt  Judy's  cabin.  It  was  so  dark  now  that 
he  would  not  have  known  it  was  a  cabin,  had  he 
not  been  so  familiar  with  it. 

Curiously  enough,  there  was  no  light  to 
be  seen  in  the  house.  Harry  hurried  to  the 
door  and  found  it  shut.  He  tried  to  open  it,  and 
it  was  locked.  Had  Aunt  Judy  gone  away? 
She  never  went  away  ;  it  was  foolish  to  sup- 
pose such  a  thing. 

He  knocked  upon  the  door,  and  receiving  no 
answer,  he  knocked  louder,  and  then  he  kicked. 
In  a  minute  or  two,  during  which  he  kept  up  a 
continual  banging  and  calling  on  the  old  woman, 
he  heard  a  slight  movement  inside.  Then  he 
knocked  and  shouted,  "  Aunt  Judy  !  " 

"  Who  dar  !  "  said  a  voice  within. 

"  It's  me  !  Harry  Loudpn  !  "  cried  Harry. 
"  Let  me  in!  " 

"What  ye  want  dar?"  said  Aunt  Judy. 
"  Go  'way  from  dar." 

"  I  want  to  come  in.     Open  the  door." 

"  Can't  come  in  hyar.     Ise  gone  to  bed." 

"  But  I  must  come  in,"  cried   Harry,  in  des- 


THE   FIRST  BUSINESS   TELEGRAMS.  2 1/ 

peration  ;  "  I've  got  to  work  the  line.  They're 
waiting  for  me.  Open  the  door,  do  you  hear, 
Aunt  Judy?" 

"  Go  'Way  wid  yer  line,"  said  Aunt  Judy, 
crossly.  "  Ise  abed.  Come  in  der  mornin'. 
Time  enough  in  de  day-time  to  work  lines." 

Harry  now  began  to  get  angry.  He  found  a 
stone  and  he  banged  the  door.  He  threatened 
Aunt  Judy  with  the  law.  He  told  her  she  had 
no  right  to  go  to  bed  and  keep  the  company  out 
of  their  station,  when  the  creek  was  up  ;  but, 
from  her  testy  answers,  his  threats  seemed  to 
have  made  but  little  impression  upon  her.  She 
didn't  care  if  they  stopped  her  pay,  or  fined  her, 
or  sent  her  to  prison.  She  never  heard  of  "  sich 
bisness,  a-wakin'  people  out  of  their  beds  in  the 
middle  o'  the  night  fur  dem  foolin'  merchines." 

But  Harry's  racket  had  a  good  effect,  after 
all.  It  woke  up  Aunt  Judy,  and  after  a  time 
she  got  out  of  bed,  uncovered  the  fire,  blew  up 
a  little  blaze,  lighted  a  candle,  and  putting  on 
some  clothes,  came  and  opened  the  door,  grum- 
bling all  the  time. 

"  Now  den,"  said  she,  holding  the  candle 
over  her  head,  and  looking  like  a  black  Witch  of 
10 


2l8      WHAT  MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

Ender  just  out  of  the  ground,  "  What  you 
want  ?  " 

"  I  want  to  come  in,  '  said  Harry. 

"  Well,  den,  come  in,"  said  she.     ' 

Harry  was  not  slow  to  enter,  and  having 
made  Aunt  Judy  bring  him  two  candles,  which 
he  told  her  the  company  would  pay  for,  he  set 
to  work  to  get  his  end  of  the  line  in  working 
order. 

When  all  was  ready,  he  sat  down  to  the  in- 
strument and  "  called  "  Harvey. 

He  felt  very  anxious  as  he  did  this.  How 
could  he  be  sure  that  Harvey  was  there  ?  What 
a  long  time  for  that  poor  fellow  to  wait,  without 
having  any  assurance  that  Harry  would  get 
across  the  creek  at  all,  much  less  reach  his  post, 
and  go  to  work. 

"  He  may  suppose  I'm  drowned,"  thought 
Harry,  "  and  he  may  have  gone  home  to  tell  the 
folks." 

But  there  was  such  a  sterling  quality  about 
Harvey  that  Harry  could  not  help  feeling  that 
he  would  find  him  in  his  place  when  he  tele- 
graphed to  him,  no  matter  how  great  the  delay 
or  how  doubtful  the  passage  of  the  creek. 


THE  FIRST   BUSINESS   TELEGRAMS.  2IQ 

But  when  he  called  there  was  no  answer. 

Still  he  kept  the  machine  steadily  ticking. 
He  would  not  give  up  hoping  that  Harvey  was 
there,  although  his  heart  beat  fast  with  nervous 
anxiety.  So  far,  he  had  not  thought  that  his 
family  might  be  frightened  about  him.  He 
knew  he  was  safe,  and  that  had  been  enough. 
He  had  not  thought  about  other  people. 

But  as  these  ideas  were  running  through  his 
head  and  troubling  him  greatly,  there  came  a 
"  tick,  tick  "  from  the  other  side,  then  more  of 
them,  but  they  meant  nothing.  Some  one  was 
there  who  could  not  work  the  instrument. 

Then  suddenly  came  a  message  : 

Is  that  you,  Harry? 

Joyfully,  Harry  answered  : 

Yes.     Who  wants  to  know? 

The  answer  was : 

Your  father.     He  has  just  waked  me  up. — HARVEY. 

With  a  light  heart,  Harry  telegraphed,  as 
briefly  as  possible,  an  account  of  his  adventures  ; 
and  then  his  father  sent  a  message,  telling  him 
that  the  family  had  heard  that  he  had  been  car- 
ried away,  and  had  been  greatly  troubled  about 


22O      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

him,  and  that  men  had  ridden  down  the  stream 
after  him,  and  had  not  returned,  and  that  he, 
Mr.  Loudon,  had  just  come  to  Lewston's  cabin, 
hoping  for  news  by  telegraph.  Harvey  had 
been  there  all  day.  Mr.  Loudon  said  he  would 
now  hurry  home  with  the  good  news,  but  before 
bidding  his  son  good  night,  he  told  him  that  he 
must  not  think  of  returning  until  the  creek  had 
fallen.  He  must  stay  at  Aunt  Judy's,  or  go  over 
to  Hetertown. 

When  this  had  been  promised,  and  a  message 
sent  to  his  mother  and  Kate,  Harry  hastened  to 
business.  He  telegraphed  to  Harvey  to  transmit 
the  company's  messages  as  fast  as  he  could  ;  a 
boy  would  soon  be  there  to  take  them  over  to 
Hetertown.  The  answer  came : 

What  messages? 

Then  Harry  suddenly  remembered  that  he 
had  had  the  messages  in  the  breast-pocket  of  his 
coat  all  the  time ! 

He  dived  at  his  pocket.  Yes,  there  they 
were! 

Was  theTe  ever  such  a  piece  of  absurdity? 
He  had  actually  carried  those  despatches  across 
the  creek  !  After  all  the  labor  and  expense  of 


THE  FIRST   BUSINESS   TELEGRAMS.  221 

building  the  telegraph,  this  had  been  the  way 
that  the  first  business  messages  had  crossed 
Crooked  Creek! 

When  Harry  made  this  discovery  he  burst 
out  laughing.  Why,  he  might  as  well  have  car- 
ried them  to  Hetertown  from  Charity's  cabin. 
It  would  really  have  been  better,  for  the  distance 
was  not  so  great. 

Although  he  laughed,  he  felt  a  little  humili- 
ated. How  Tom  Selden,  and  indeed  everybody, 
would  laugh  if  they  knew  it ! 

But  there  was  no  need  to  tell  everybody,  and 
so  when  he  telegraphed  the  fact  to  Harvey,  he 
enjoined  secrecy.  He  knew  he  could  trust 
Harvey. 

And  now  he  became  anxious  about  Jim. 
Would  he  be  able  to  borrow  a  mule,  and  would 
he  come? 

Every  few  minutes  he  went  to  the  door  and 
listened  for  the  sound  of  approaching  hoofs,  but 
nothing  was  to  be  heard  but  the  low  snoring  of 
Aunt  Judy,  who  was  fast  asleep  in  a  chair  by  the 
fireplace. 

While  thus  waiting,  a  happy  thought  came 
into  Harry's  head.  He  opened  the  messages — 


222      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

he  had  a  right  to  do  that,  of  course,  as  he  was 
an  operator  and  had  undertaken  to  transmit 
them — and  he  telegraphed  them,  one  by  one,  to 
Harvey,  with  instructions  to  him  to  send  them 
back  to  him. 

"  They  shall  come  over  the  creek  on  our 
line,  anyway,"  said  Harry  to  himself. 

It  did  not  take  long  to  send  them  and  to 
receive  them  again,  for  there  were  only  three  of 
them.  Then  Harvey  sent  a  message,  congratu- 
lating Harry  on  this  happy  idea,  and  also  sug- 
gested that  he,  Harvey,  should  now  ride  home, 
as  it  was*getting  late,  and  it  was  not  likely  that 
there  would  be  any  more  business  that  night. 

Harry  agreed  to  this,  urging  Harvey  to  return 
early  in  the  morning,  and  then  he  set  to  work 
to  write  out  the  messages.  The  company  had 
not  yet  provided  itself  with  regular  forms,  but 
Harry  copied  the  telegrams  carefully  on  note- 
paper,  with  which,  with  pen  and  ink,  each  station 
was  furnished,  writing  them,  as  far  as  possible, 
in  the  regular  form  and  style  of  the  ordinary 
telegraphic  despatch.  Then  he  put  them  in  an 
envelope  and  directed  them  to  Mr.  Lyons,  at 


THE   FIRST  BUSINESS   TELEGRAMS.  223 

Hetertown,  indorsing  them,  "  In  haste.  To  be 
transmitted  to  destination  immediately." 

"  Now  then,"  thought  he,  "  nobody  need 
know  how  these  came  over  in  the  first  place, 
until  we  choose  to  tell  them,  and  we  won't  do 
that  until  we've  sent  over  some  messages  in  the 
regular  way,  and  have  proved  that  our  line  is 
really  of  some  use.  And  we  won't  charge  the 
Mica  Company  anything  for  these  despatches. 
But  yet,  I  don't  know  about  that.  I  certainly 
brought  them  over,  and  trouble  enough  I  had 
to  do  it.  I'll  see  about  charging,  after  I've 
talked  it  over  with  somebody.  I  reckon  I'll  ask 
father  about  that.  And  I  haven't  delayed  the 
messages,  either  ;  for  I've  been  waiting  for  Jim. 
I  wonder  where  that  boy  can  be  !  "  And  again 
Harry  went  out  of  doors  to  listen. 

Had  he  known  that  Jim  was  at  that  moment 
fast  asleep  in  his  bed  at  home,  Harry  need  not 
have  gone  to  the  door  so  often. 

At  last  our  operator  began  to  be  very  sleepy, 
and  having  made  up  his  mind  that  if  Jim  arrived 
he  would  certainly  wake  him  up,  he  aroused 
Aunt  Judy,  who  was  now  too  sleepy  to  scold, 
and  having  succeeded  in  getting  her  to  lend  him 


224      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

a  blanket  (it  was  her  very  best  blanket,  which 
she  kept  for  high  days  and  holidays,  and  if  she 
had  been  thoroughly  awake  she  would  not  have 
lent  it  for  the  purpose),  and  having  spread  it 
on  the  floor,  he  lay  down  on  it  and  was  soon 
asleep. 

Aunt  Judy  blew  out  one  of  the  candles  and 
set  the  other  on  the  hearth.  Then  she  stum- 
bled drowsily  into  the  next  room  and  shut  the 
door  after  her.  In  a  few  minutes  every  living 
creature  in  and  about  the  place  was  fast  asleep, 
excepting  some  tree-frogs  and  katydids  out- 
side, who  seemed  to  have  made  up  their  minds 
to  stay  up  all  night. 


CHAPTEK  XXV. 
PROFITS  AND   PROJECTS 

7"* HE  next  morning,  Harry  was  up  quite 
early,  and  after  having  eaten  a  very  plain 
breakfast,  which  Aunt  Judy  prepared  for  him, 
he  ran  down  to  the  creek  to  see  what  chance 
there  was  for  business. 

There  seemed  to  be  a  very  good  chance,  for 
the  creek  had  not  fallen,  that  was  certain.  If 
there  was  any  change  at  all,  the  water  seemed  a 
little  higher  than  it  was  before. 

Before  long,  Harvey  arrived  on  the  other 
side,  accompanied  by  Tom  Selden  and  Wilson 
Ogden,  who  were  very  anxious  to  see  how  mat- 
ters would  progress,  now  that  there  was  some 
real  work  to  do. 

The  boys  sent  messages  and  greetings  back- 
ward and  forward  to  each  other  for  about  an 

hour,  and  then  old  Miles  arrived  with  his  mail- 
10* 


226      WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

bag,  which   contained  quite    a  number   of  tele- 
grams, this  time. 

Not  only  were  there  those  on  the  business  of 
the  Mica  Company,  but  Mr.  Darby,  the  store- 
keeper at  Akeville,  thought  it  necessary  to  send 
a  message  to  Hetertown  by  the  new  line,  and 
there  were  two  or  three  other  private  telegrams, 
that  would  probably  never  have  been'  sent  had  it 
not  been  for  the  novelty  of  the  thing. 

But  that  rascal,  Jim  Haskins,  did  not  make 
his  appearance,  and  when  Harry  found  that  it 
was  not  likely  that  he  would  come  at  all,  he  in- 
duced Aunt  Judy  to  go  out  and  look  for  some 
one  to  carry  the  telegrams  to  Hetertown.  Harry 
had  just  finished  copying  the  messages — and  this 
took  some  time,  for  he  wrote  each  one  of  them  in 
official  form — when  Aunt  Judy  returned,  bring- 
ing with  her  a  telegraphic  messenger. 

It  was  Uncle  Braddock. 

"  Here's  a  man  to  take  yer  letters,"  said  Aunt 
Judy,  as  she  ushered  in  the  old  man. 

Harry  looked  up  from  his-table  in  surprise. 

"  Why,  Uncle  Braddock,"  said  he,  "  you 
can't  carry  these  telegrams.  I  want  a  boy,  on  a 
mule  or  a  horse,  to  go  as  fast  as  he  can." 


PROFITS  AND   PROJECTS.  22/ 

"  Lor'  bress  ye,  Mah'sr  Harry,"  said  the  old 
negro,  "  I  kin  git  along  fas'  enough.  Aunt  Judy 
said  ye  wanted  Jim,  an'  Nobleses  mule;  but  dat 
dar  mule  he  back  hindwards  jist  about  as  much 
as  he  walks  frontwards.  I  jist  keep  right  straight 
along,  an'  I  kin  beat  dat  dar  ole  mule,  all  holler. 
Jist  gim  me  yer  letters,  an'  I'll  tote  'em  oberdar 
fur  ten  cents.  Ye  see  I  wuz  cotched  on  dis  side 
de  creek,  an'  wuz  jist  comin  ober  to  see  Aunt 
Judy,  when  she  telled  me  ob  dis  job.  I'll  tote 
yer  letters,  Mah'sr  Harry,  fur  ten  cents  fur  de 
bag-full." 

"I  haven't  a  bag-full,"  said  Harry;  "but  I 
reckon  you'll  have  to  take  them.  There's  nobody 
else  about,  it  seems,  and  I  can't  leave  the  sta- 
tion." 

So  Uncle  Braddock  was  engaged -as  tele- 
graph-boy, and  Harry  having  promised  him 
twenty  cents  to  go  to  Hetertown  and  to  return 
with  any  telegrams  that  were  there  awaiting 
transmission  to  the  other  side  of  the  creek,  the 
old  man  set  off  with  his  little  package,  in  high 
good  humor  with  the  idea  of  earning  money  by 
no  harder  work  than  walking  a  few  miles. 

Short4y  after  noon,  he  returned  with  a  few 


228      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

messages  from  Hetertown,  and  by  that  time 
there  were  some  for  him  to  carry  back.  So  he 
made  two  trips  and  forty  cents  that  day — quite 
an  income  for  Uncle  Braddock. 

In  the  evening,  Jim  Haskins  made  his  ap- 
pearance with  his  mule.  He  said  his  brother 
hadn't  told  him  anything  about  Harry's  want- 
ing him  until  that  afternoon.  Notwithstanding 
Uncle  Braddock's  discouraging  account  of  the 
mule,  Jim  was  engaged  as  messenger  during  the 
time  that  the  creek  should  be  up,  and  Uncle 
Braddock  was  promised  a  job  whenever  an  im- 
portant message  should  come  during  Jim's 
absence. 

The  next  day  it  rained,  and  the  creek  was 
up,  altogether,  for  five  days.  During  this  time 
the  telegraph  company  did  a  good  deal  of  pay- 
ing business.  Harry  remained  at  his  station, 
and  boarded  and  lodged  with  Aunt  Judy.  He 
frequently  sent  messages  to  his  father  and 
mother  and  Kate,  and  never  failed,  from  an 
early  hour  in  the  morning  until  dark,  to  find  the 
faithful  Harvey  at  his  post. 

At  last  the  creek  "  fell,"  and  the  bridge 
became  again  passable  to  Miles  and  his-waddling 


PROFITS  AND   PROJECTS.  229 

horse.  The  operators  disconnected  their  wires, 
put  their  apparatus  in  order,  locked  the  wooden 
cases  over  their  instruments,  and  rode  in  triumph 
(Mr.  Loudon  had  come  in  the  buggy  for  Harry) 
to  Akeville. 

Harry  was  received  with  open  arms  by  his 
mother  and  Kate ;  and  Mrs.  Loudon  declared 
that  this  should  be  the  last  time  that  he  should 
go  on  such  an  expedition. 

She  was  right. 

The  next  afternoon  there  was  a  meeting  of 
the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Crooked  Creek 
Telegraph  Company,  and  the  Secretary,  having 
been  hard  at  work  all  the  morning,  with  the 
assistance  of  the  Treasurer  and  the  President, 
made  a  report  of  the  financial  results  of  the 
recent  five  days'  working  of  the  company's 
line. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  particulars,  but 
when  the  sums  due  the  company  from  the  Mica 
Company  and  sundry  private  individuals  had 
been  set  down  on  the  one  side,  and  the  amounts 
due  from  the  telegraph  company  to  Aunt  Judy 
for  candles  and  board  and  lodging  for  one  opera- 
tor; to  Uncle  Braddock  and  Jim  Haskins  for 


230      WHAT  MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

services  as  messengers  ;  to  Hiram  Anderson  for 
damages  to  boat  (found  near  the  river,  stuck  fast 
among  some  fallen  timber,  with  one  end  badly 
battered  by  floating  logs),  and  for  certain  extras 
in  the  way  of  additional  stationery,  etc.,  which 
it  had  become  necessary  to  procure  from  Heter- 
town,  had  been  set  down  on  the  other  side,  and 
the  difference  between  the  sums  total  had  been 
calculated,  it  was  found,  and  duly  reported,  that 
the  company  had  made  six  dollars  and  fifty-three 
cents. 

This  was  not  very  encouraging.  It  was  sel- 
dom that  the  creek  was  up  more  than  five  days 
at  a  time,  and  so  this  was  a  very  favorable  op- 
portunity of  testing  the  value  of  the  line  as  a 
money-making  concern. 

It  was  urged,  however,  by  the  more  sanguine 
members  of  the  Board  that  this  was  not  a  fair 
trial.  There  had  been  many  expenses  which 
probably  would  not  have  to  be  incurred  again. 

"  But  they  didn't  amount  to  so  very  much," 
said  Kate,  who,  as  Treasurer,  was  present  at  the 
meeting.  "Aunt  Judy  only  charged  a  dollar 
and  a  half  for  Harry's  board,  and  the  boat  was 


PROFITS  AND   PROJECTS.  23! 

only  a  dollar.  And  all  the  other  expenses  would 
have  to  be  expected  any  time." 

After  some  further  conversation  on  the  sub- 
ject, it  was  thought  best  to  attend  to  present 
business  rather  than  future  prospects,  and  to 
appoint  committees  to  collect  the  money  due 
the  company. 

Harry  and  Tom  Selden  were  delegated  to 
visit  the  mica-mine  people,  while  Harvey,  Wilson 
Ogden,  and  Brandeth  Price  composed  the  com- 
mittee to  collect  what  was  due  from  private 
individuals. 

Before  Harry  started  for  the  mica  mine,  he 
consulted  his  father  in  regard  to  charging  full 
price  for  the  telegrams  which  he  carried  across 
the  creek  in  his  pocket. 

Mr.  Loudon  laughed  a  good  deal  at  the 
transaction,  but  he  told  Harry  that  there  was  no 
reason  why  he  should  not  charge  for  those  tele- 
grams. He  had  certainly  carried  them  over  in 
the  first  place,  and  the  subsequent  double  trans- 
mission over  the  wire  was  his  own  affair. 

When  Harry  and  Tom  rode  over  to  the  mica 
mine  the  next  morning,  and  explained  their  busi- 
ness and  presented  their  bill,  their  account  was 


232   WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

found  to  be  correct,  and  the  amount  of  the  bill 
was  promptly  handed  to  them. 

When  this  little  business  had  been  transacted, 
Mr.  Martin,  the  manager  of  the  mine,  invited 
them  to  sit  down  in  his  office  and  have  a  talk. 

"  This  line  of  yours,"  said  he,  "  is  not  going 
to  pay  you." 

"  Why  not  ?  "  asked  Harry,  somewhat  dis- 
turbed in  mind  by  this  sudden  statement  of 
what  he  had  already  begun  to  fear  was  an  un- 
pleasant truth. 

"  It  has  paid  us,"  said  Tom  Selden.  "  Why, 
we've  only  been  working  it  five  days,  on  regular 
business,  and  we've  cleared — well,  we've  cleared 
considerable." 

"  That  may  be,"  said  the  manager,  smiling, 
"  but  you  can't  have  made  very  much,  for  you 
must  have  a  good  many  expenses.  The  princi- 
pal reason  why  I  think  it  won't  pay  you  is  that 
you  have  to  keep  up  two  stations,  and  you  all 
live  on  this  side  of  the  creek.  I've  heard  that 
one  of  you  had  a  hard  time  getting  over  the 
creek  last  week." 

"  That  was  Harry,"  said  Tom. 

"  So  I  supposed,"  said  Mr.  Martin  ;  "  and  it 


4 

PROFITS  AND   PROJECTS.  233 

must  have  been  a  pretty  dangerous  trip.  Now 
it  won't  do  to  do  that  sort  of  thing  often  ;  and 
you  can't  tell  when  the  creek's  going  to  rise,  so 
as  to  be  over  before  the  bridge  is  flooded." 

"  That's  true,"  said  Harry.  "  Crooked  Creek 
doesn't  give  much  notice  when  it's  going  to 
rise." 

"  No,  it  don't,"  continued  Mr.  Martin.  "  And 
it  won't  do,  either,  for  any  one  of  you  to  live  on 
the  other  side,  just  to  be  ready  to  work  the  line 
in  time  of  freshets.  The  creek  isn't  up  often 
enough  to  make  that  pay." 

"  But  what  can  we  do?  "  asked  Harry.  "  You 
surely  don't  think  we're  going  to  give  up  this 
telegraph  line  just  as  it  begins  to  work,  and  after 
all  the  money  that's  been  spent  on  it,  and  the 
trouble  we've  had  ?  " 

"  No,  I  don't  think  you  are  the  kind  of  fel- 
lows to  give  up  a  thing  so  soon,  and  we  don't 
want  you  to  give  it  up,  for  it's  been  a  great  deal 
of  use  to  us  already.  What  I  think  you  ought 
to  do  is  to  run  your  line  from  the  other  side  of 
the  creek  to  Hetertown.  Then  you'd  have  no 
trouble  at  all.  When  the  creek  was  up  you 
could  go  down  and  work  this  end,  and  an 


V 
234      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

arrangement  could  easily  be  made  to  have  the 
operator  at  Hetertown  work  the  other  end,  and 
then  it  would  be  all  plain  sailing.  He  could  send 
the  telegrams  right  on,  on  the  regular  line,  and 
there  would  be  no  trouble  or  expense  with  mes- 
sengers from  the  creek  over  to  Hetertown." 

"  That  would  be  a  splendid  plan,"  said  Harry  ; 
"  but  it  would  cost  like  everything  to  have  a  long 
line  like  that." 

"  It  wouldn't  cost  very  much,"  said  Mr.  Mar- 
tin. "  There  are  pine  woods  nearly  all  the  way, 
by  the  side  of  the  road,  and  so  it  wouldn't  cost 
much  for  poles.  And  you've  got  the  instru- 
ments for  that  end  of  the  line.  All  you'll  have 
to  do  would  be  to  take  them  ever  to  Hetertown. 
You  wouldn't  have  to  spend  any  money  except 
for  wire  and  for  trimming  off  the  trees  and  put- 
ting up  the  wire." 

"  But  that  would  be  more  than  we  could 
afford,"  said  Tom  Selden.  "You  ought  just  to 
try  to  make  the  people  about  here  subscribe  to 
anything,  and  you'd  see  what  trouble  it  is  to  raise 
money  out  of  them." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  think  you  need  let  the  want  of 
money  enough  to  buy  a  few  miles  of  wire  pre- 


PROFITS   AND   PROJECTS.  235 

vent  your  putting  up  a  really  useful  line,"  said 
Mr.  Martin  ;  "  our  company  would  be  willing  to 
help  you  about  that,  I'm  sure." 

"  If  you'd  help,  that  would  make  it  altogether 
another  thing,"  said  Harry ;  "  but  you'd  have 
to  help  a  good  deal." 

"  Well,  we  would  help  a  good  deal,"  said 
Mr.  Martin.  "  It  would  be  to  our  benefit,  you 
know,  to  have  a  good  line.  That's  what  we 
want,  and  we're  willing  to  put  some  money  in  it. 
I  suppose  there'd  be  no  difficulty  in  getting  per- 
mission to  put  up  the  line  on  the  land  between 
the  creek  and  Hetertown?" 

"  Oh,  no  ! "  said  Harry.  "  A  good  part  of  the 
woods  along  the  road  belong  to  father,  and  none 
of  the  people  along  there  would  object  to  us 
boys  putting  up  our  line  on  their  land." 

"  I  thought  they  wouldn't,"  said  Mr.  Martin. 
"  I'll  talk  to  our  people  about  this,  and  see  what 
they  think  of  it." 

As  Harry  and  Tom  rode  home,  Harry 
remarked,  "  Mr.  Martin's  a  trump,  isn't  he?  I 
hope  the  rest  of  the  mica-mine  people  will 
agree  with  him." 

"  I     don't    believe    they   will,"    said    Tom. 


236   WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

"  Why,  you  see  they'd  have  to  pay  for  the  whole 
thing,  and  I  reckon  they  won't  be  in  a  hurry  to 
do  that.  But  wouldn't  we  have  a  splendid  Ime 
if  they  were  to  do  it  ?" 

"  I  should  say  so,"  said  Harry.  "  It's  almost 
too  good  a  thing  to  expect.  I'm  afraid  Mr. 
Martin  won't  feel  quite  so  generous  when  he 
calculates  what  it  will  cost." 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 
A  GRAND  PROPOSITION. 

r  I  "'HE  summer  vacation  was  now  over,  and 
-*•  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  telegraph 
company,  as  well  as  the  other  boys  of  the  vicin- 
ity, were  obliged  to  go  to  school  again  and 
study  something  besides  the  arts  of  making 
money  and  transacting  telegraphic  business. 
But  as  there  was  not  much  business  of  this  kind 
to  be  done,  the  school  interfered  with  the  com- 
pany's affairs  in  little  else  than  the  collection 
of  money  due  from  private  individuals  for  tele- 
graphic services  rendered  during  the  late  "  rise  " 
in  the  creek.  The  committee  which  had  charge 
of  this  collection  labored  very  faithfully  for 
some  time,  and  before  and  after  school  and 
during  the  noon  recess,  the  members  thereof 
made  frequent  visits  to  the  houses  of  the  com- 
pany's debtors.  As  there  were  not  more  than 
half-a-dozen  debtors,  it  might  have  been  sup- 


238      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

posed  that  the  business  would  be  speedily  per- 
formed. But  such  was  not  the  case.  Mr. 
Darby,  the  storekeeper,  paid  his  bill  promptly ; 
and  old  Mr.  Truly  Matthews,  who  had  tele- 
graphed to  Washington  to  a  nephew  in  the 
Patent  Office  Department,  "just  to  see  how  it 
would  go,"  paid  what  he  owed  on  the  eighth 
visit  of  Wilson  Ogden  to  his  house.  He  had 
not  seen  "  how  it  would  go,"  for  his  nephew  had 
not  answered  him,  either  by  telegraph  or  mail, 
and  he  was  in  no  hurry  to  pay  up,  but  he  could 
not  stand  "  that  boy  opening  his  gate  three 
times  a  day."  As  for  the  rest,  they  promised  to 
settle  as  soon  as  they  could  get  some  spare  cash 
— which  happy  time  they  expected  would  arrive 
when  they  sold  their  tobacco. 

It  is  to  be  supposed  that  no  one  ever  bought 
their  tobacco,  for  they  never  paid  up. 

The  proceeds  of  the  five  days  of  telegraph- 
ing, together  with  the  money  obtained  by  the 
sale  of  Harry's  gun,  were  spent  by  Kate  for 
Aunt  Matilda's  benefit ;  and  as  she  knew  that  it 
might  be  a  good  while  before  there  would  be 
any  more  money  coming,  Kate  was  as  economi- 
cal as  she  could  be. 


A   GRAND   PROPOSITION.  239 

It  was  all  very  proper  and  kind  to  make  the 
old  woman's  income  hold  out  as  long  as  possi- 
ble, but  Aunt  Matilda  did  not  like  this  system- 
atic and  economical  way  of  living.  It  was  too 
late  in  life  for  her,  she  said,  "  to  do  more  meas- 
urin'  at  a  meal  than  chewin' ; "  and  so  she 
became  discouraged,  and  managed,  one  fine 
morning,  to  hobble  up  to  see  Mrs.  Loudon 
about  it. 

"  Ise  afraid  dese  chillen  ain't  a-gwine  to  hold 
out,"  said  she.  "  I  don  know  but  what  I'd  bet- 
ter go  'long  to  the  poor-house,  arter  all.  And 
there's  that  money  I  put  inter  de  comp'ny.  I 
ain't  seen  nothin'  come  o'  dat  ar  money  yit." 

"  How  much  did  you  put  in,  Aunt  Matilda  ?  " 
asked  Mrs.  Loudon. 

"Well,  I  needn't  be  a-sayin' jist  how  much 
it  was  ;  but  it  was  solid  silver,  anyway,  and  I 
don't  reckon  I'll  ever  see  any  of  it  back  again. 
But  it  don't  differ  much.  Ise  an  old  woman, 
and  them  chillen  is  a-doin'  their  best." 

"  Yes,  they  are,"  said  Mrs.  Loudon  ;  "  and  I 
think  they're  doing  very  well,  too.  You  haven't 
suffered  for  anything  lately,  have  you?" 

"  Well,   no,"  said   the  old  woman,  "  I  can't 


240   WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

say  that  I've  gone  hungry  or  nuthin' ;  but  I  was 
only  a-gittin'  'fraid  I  might.  Dis  hyar  'tic'lar 
way  o'  doin*  things  makes  a  person  scary." 

"  I  am  glad  that  Kate  is  particular,"  said 
Mrs.  Loudon.  "  You  know,  Aunt  Matilda,  that 
money  isn't  very  plenty  with  a"ny  of  us,  and  we 
all  have  to  learn  to  make  it  go  as  far  as  it  will. 
I  don't  think  you  need  feel  '  scary,'  if  Kate's 
economy  is  all  you  have  to  fear." 

This  interview  somewhat  reassured  Aunt 
Matilda,  but  she  was  not  altogether  satisfied 
with  the  state  of  things.  The  fact  was  that  she 
had  supposed  that  the  telegraph  company  would 
bring  in  so  much  money  that  she  would  be  able 
to  live  in  what  to  her  would  be  a  state  of  com- 
parative luxury.  And  instead  of  that,  Kate  had 
been  preaching  economy  and  systematic  man- 
agement to  her.  No  wonder  she  was  disap- 
pointed, and  a  little  out  of  humor  with  her  young 
guardians. 

But  for  all  that,  if  Harry  or  Kate  had  fallen 
into  a  fiery  crater,  Aunt  Matilda  would  have 
hurried  in  after  them  as  fast  as  her  old  legs 
would  have  carried  her. 

She  went  back  to  her  cabin,  after  a  while,  and 


A  GRAND    PROPOSITION.  24! 

she  continued  to  have  her  three  meals  a  day  all 
the  same  as  usual ;  but  if  she  could  have  seen, 
as  Kate  saw,  how  steadily  the  little  fund  for  her 
support  was  diminishing  day  by  day,  she  would 
have  had  some  reason  for  her  apprehensions. 

It  was  on  a  pleasant  Saturday  in  early  Sep- 
tember, that  Harry  stood  looking  over  the  front 
gate  in  his  father's  yard.  Kate  was  at  the  din- 
ing-room window,  sewing.  Harry  was  thinking, 
and  Kate  was  wondering  what  he  was  thinking 
about.  She  thought  she  knew,  and  she  called 
out  to  him :  "  I  expect  old  Mr.  Matthews  would 
lend  you  a  gun,  Harry." 

"  Yes,  I  suppose  he  would,"  said  Harry, 
turning  and  slowly  walking  up  toward  the 
house  ;  "  but  father  told  me  not  to  borrow  a  gun 
from  Truly  Matthews.  It's  a  shame,  though,  to 
stay  here  when  the  fields  are  just  chock  full  of 
partridges.  I  never  knew  them  so  plenty  in  all 
my  life.  It's  just  the  way  things  go." 

"  It  is  a  pity  about  your  gun,"  said  Kate. 
"  There's  some  one  at  the  gate,  Harry.  Hadn't 
you  better  go  and  see  what  he  wants?  Father 
won't  be  home  until  after  dinner,  you  can  tell 

him." 

ii 


242      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN  EXPECTED. 

Harry  turned. 

"It's  Mr.  Martin,"  said  he,  and  he  went 
down  to  the  gate  to  meet  him. 

"  How  do  you  do,  Mr.  President  ?  "  said  Mr. 
Martin.  "  I  rode  over  here  this  morning,  and 
thought  I  would  come  and  see  you." 

Harry  shook  hands  with  his  visitor,  and 
invited  him  to  walk  into  the  house  ;  but  after 
Mr.  Martin  had  dismounted  and  fastened  his 
horse,  he  thought  that  the  seat  under  the  catalpa- 
tree  looked  so  cool  and  inviting,  that  he  pro- 
posed that  they  should  sit  down  there  and  have 
a  little  chat. 

"  I  have  been  thinking  about  the  extension 
of  your  telegraph  line,"  said  the  manager  of  the 
mica  mine,  "  and  have  talked  it  over  with  our 
people.  They  agree  with  me  that  it  would  be  a 
good  thing,  and  we  have  determined,  if  it  suits 
you  and  your  company,  that  we  will  advance  the 
money  necessary  to  carry  out  the  scheme." 

"  I'm  glad  to  hear  that,"  said  Harry;  "but, 
as  I  said  before,  you'll  have  to  bear  the  whole 
expense,  and  it  will  cost  a  good  deal  to  carry 
the  line  from  the  creek  all  the  way  to  Heter- 
town." 


A  GRAND   PROPOSITION.  243 

"  Yes,  it  will  cost  some  money,"  said  Mr. 
Martin  ;  "  but  our  idea  is  that  you  ought  to 
have  a  complete  line  while  you  are  about  it,  and 
that  it  ought  to  run  from  our  mine  to  Heter- 
town." 

"  From  your  mine  to  Hetertown  !  "  exclaim- 
ed Harry,  in  astonishment. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  Martin,  smiling.  "That  is 
the  kind  of  a  line  that  is  really  needed.  You 
see,  our  business  is  increasing,  and  we  are  buy- 
ing land  which  we  intend  to  sell  out  in  small 
farms,  and  so  expect  to  build  up  quite  a  little 
village  out  there  in  time.  So  you  can  under- 
stand that  we  would  like  to  be  in  direct  com- 
munication with  Richmond  and  the  North. 
And  if  we  can  have  it  by 'means  of  your  line,  we 
are  ready  to  put  the  necessary  funds  into  the 
work." 

Harry  was  so  amazed  at  this  statement,  that 
he  could  hardly  find  words  with  which  to  ex- 
press himself. 

."  Why,  that  would  give  us  a  regular,  first- 
class  telegraph  line  !  "  he  exclaimed. 

"  Certainly,"  said  Mr.  Martin,  "  and  that's  the 
only  kind  of  a  line  that  is  really  worth  anything." 


244      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

"  I  don't  know  what  to  think  about  it,"  said 
Harry.  "  I  didn't  expect  you  to  propose  any- 
thing like  this." 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  Martin,  rising,  "  I  must  be 
off.  I  had  only  a  few  minutes  to  spare,  but  I 
thought  I  had  better  come  and  make  you  this 
proposition.  I  think  you  had  better  lay  it  before 
your  Board  of  Managers  as  soon  as  possible,  and 
if  you  will  take  my  advice,  as  a  business  man, 
you'll  accept  our  offer." 

So  saying,  he  bid  Harry  good-by,  took  off  his 
hat  to  Kate,  who  was  still  looking  out  of  the 
window,  mounted  his  horse,  and  rode  away. 

There  was  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Mana- 
gers of  the  Crooked  Creek  Telegraph  Company 
that  afternoon.  It  was  a  full  meeting,  for  Harry 
sent  hasty  messengers  to  those  he  called  the 
"  out-lying  members." 

A  more  astonished  body  of  officials  has  sel- 
dom been  seen  than  was  our  Board  when  Harry 
laid  the  proposition  of  Mr.  Martin  before  it. 

But  the  boys  were  not  so  much  amazed  that 
they  could  not  jump  at  this  wonderful  opportu- 
nity, and  in  a  very  short  time  it  was  unanimously 


A   GRAND   PROPOSITION.  24$ 

voted  to  accept  the  proposition  of  the  mica-mine 
people,  and  to  build  the  great  line. 

Almost  as  soon  as  this  important  vote  had 
been  taken,  the  meeting  adjourned,  and  the 
members  hurried  to  their  several  homes  to  carry 
the  news. 

"  We'll  have  to  change  our  name,"  said  Tom 
Selden  to  Harry.  "  We  ought  to  call  our  com- 
pany '  The  United  States  Mica  and  Hetertown 
Lightning  Express  Line,'  or  something  big  like 
that." 

"  Yes,"  replied  Harry.  "  The  A  i  double, 
action,  back-spring,  copper-fastened,  broad- 
gauge  telegraph  line  from  here  to  the  moon ! " 

And  away  he  ran  to  meet  Kate,  who  was 
coming  down  the  road. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

How  SOMETHING  CAME  TO  AN  END. 

r  I  ^HE  mica-mine  management  appeared  to 
-*•  be  thoroughly  in  earnest  about  this  ex- 
tension of  the  telegraph  line.  As  soon  as  the 
assent  of  the  Board  of  Managers  to  the  scheme 
had  been  communicated  to  them,  they  sent  a 
note  to  Harry  suggesting  that  he  should,  in  the 
name  of  his  company,  get  the  written  consent  of 
owners  of  the  lands  over  which  the  line  would 
pass  to  the  construction  of  said  line  on  their 
property.  This  business  was  soon  settled,  for 
none  of  the  owners  of  the  farms  between  the 
mines  and  Hetertown,  all  of  whom  were  well 
acquainted  with  Mr.  Loudon  (and  no  man  in 
that  part  of  the  country  was  held  in  higher  esti- 
mation by  his  neighbors),  had  the  slightest  ob- 
jection to  the  boys  putting  up  their  telegraph 
line  on  their  lands. 

When     Harry    had   secured    the    necessary 


HOW   SOMETHING  CAME  TO  AN   END.        247 

promises,  the  construction  of  the  line  was  com- 
menced forthwith.  The  boys  had  very  little 
trouble  with  it.  Mr.  Martin  got  together  a 
gang  of  men,  with  an  experienced  man  to  direct 
them,  and  came  down  with  them  to  Akeville, 
where  Harry  hired  them  ;  and  rinding  that  the 
foreman  understood  the  business,  he  told  him  to 
go  to  work  and  put  up  the  line.  When  pay- 
days came  around,  Harry  gave  each  man  an 
order  for  his  money  on  the  Mica  Mine  Com- 
pany, and  their  wages  were  paid  them  by  Mr. 
Martin. 

It  was  not  very  long  before  the  line  was  con- 
structed and  the  instruments  were  in  working 
order  in  Hetertown  and  at  the  mica  mines. 
There  was  a  person  at  the  latter  place  who 
understood  telegraphy,  and  he  attended  to  the 
business  at  that  end  of  the  line,  while  Mr. 
Lyons  worked  the  instruments  at  the  Hetertown 
station,  which  was  in  the  same  building  with 
the  regular  telegraph  line. 

It  was  agreed  that  the  Mica  Company 
should  keep  an  account  of  all  messages  sent  by 
them  over  the  line,  and  should  credit  the 
Crooked  Creek  Telegraph  Company  with  the 


248      WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

amount  due  in  payment,  after  deducting  neces- 
sary expenses,  hire  of  operators',  and  six  per  cent, 
on  the  capital  advanced. 

Everything  having  been  arranged  on  this 
basis,  the  extended  line  went  into  operation, 
without  regard  to  the  amount  of  water  in  the 
creek,  and  old  Miles  carried  no  more  telegrams 
to  Hetertown. 

The  telegraph  business,  however,  became 
much  less  interesting  to  Kate  and  the  boys.  It 
seemed  to  them  as  if  it  had  been  taken  entirely 
out  of  their  hands,  which  was,  indeed,  the  true 
state  of  the  case.  They  were  the  nominal 
owners  and  directors  of  the  line,  but  they  had 
nothing  to  direct,  and  very  vague  ideas  about 
the  value  of  the  property  they  owned. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Tom  Selden,  as  he  sat 
one  afternoon  in  Mr.  Loudon's  yard,  with  Harry 
and  Kate,  "  whether  we've  made  much  by  this 
business  or  not.  Those  mica  people  keep  all 
the  accounts  and  do  all  the  charging,  and  if 
they  want  to  cheat  us,  I  don't  see  what's  to 
hinder  them." 

"But  you  know,"  said  Harry,  "that  we  can 
examine  their  accounts;  and,  besides,  Mr. 


HOW   SOMETHING   CAME   TO  AN  END.        249 

Lyons  will  keep  a  tally  of  all  the  messages 
sent,  and  I  don't  believe  that  he  would  cheat 
us." 

"  No  ;  I  don't  suppose  he  would,"  said  Tom  ; 
"  but  I  liked  the  old  way  best.  There  was 
more  fun  in  it." 

"  Yes,  there  was,"  said  Kate ;  "and  then  we 
helped  old  Lewston  and  Aunt  Judy.  I  expect 
they'll  miss  the  money  they  got  for  rent." 

"  Certainly,"  said  Harry.  "  They'll  have  to 
deny  themselves  many  a  luxury  in  consequence 
of  the  loss  of  that  dollar  a  month." 

"  Now  you're  making  fun,"  said  Kate  ;  "but 
twelve  dollars  a  year  is  a  good  deal  to  those  poor 
people." 

"  I  suppose  it  is,"  said  Harry.  "  In  fifty 
years,  it  would  be  six  hundred  dollars,  if  they 
saved  it  all  up,  and  that  is  a  good  deal  of  money, 
even  to  us  rich  folks." 

"  Rich  !  "  said  Kate.  "  We're  so  dreadfully 
rich  that  I  have  only  forty-two  cents  left  of  Aunt 
Matilda's  money,  and  I  must  have  some  very 
soon." 

The  consequence  of  this*  conversation  was 
that  Harry  had  to  ride  over  to  the  mica  mines, 


2$0      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

and  get  a  small  advance  on  the  payment  due  at 
the  end  of  the  month. 

The  end  of  the  month  arrived,  and  the  set- 
tlement was  made.  When  the  interest  on  the 
money  advanced  to  put  up  the  line,  hire  of  ope- 
rators, and  other  expenses,  had  been  deducted 
from  the  amount  due  the  Crooked  Creek  Com- 
pany, there  was  only  two  dollars  and  a  quarter 
to  be  paid  to  it ! 

Harry  was  astounded.  He  took  the  money, 
rode  back  to  Akeville,  and  hastened  to  have  a 
consultation  with  Kate.  For  the  first  time  since 
he  become  a  guardian,  he  was  in  despair.  This 
money  was  not  enough  for  Aunt  Matilda's  needs, 
and  if  it  had  been,  there  were  stockholders  who 
were  expecting  great  things  from  the  recent  ex- 
tension of  the  line.  What  was  to  be  said  to 
them  ? 

Harry  didn't  know,  and  Kate  could  suggest 
nothing.  It  appeared  to  be  quite  plain  that 
they  had  made  a  very  bad  business  of  this  tele- 
graphic affair.  A  meeting  of  the  Board  was 
called,  and  when  each  member  had  had  his  say, 
matters  appeared  worse  than  ever. 

It  was  a  very  blue  time  for  our  friends. 


HOW   SOMETHING   CAME  TO   AN  END.        2$  I 

As  for  Kate,  she  cried  a  good  deal  that  after- 
noon. 

The  time  had  at  last  come  when  she  felt  they 
would  have  to  give  up  Aunt  Matilda.  She  was 
sure,  if  they  had  never  started  this  telegraphic 
company,  they  might  have  struggled  through  the 
winter,  but  now  there  were  stockholders  and 
creditors  and  she  did  not  know  what  all.  She 
only  knew  that  it  was  too  much  for  them. 

Three  days  after  this,  Harry  received  a  note 
from  Mr.  Martin.  When  he  read  it,  he  gave  a 
shout  that  brought  everybody  out  of  the  house — 
Kate  first.  When  she  read  the  note,  which  she 
took  from  Harry  as  he  was  waving  it  around  his 
head,  she  stood  bewildered.  She  could  not 
comprehend  it. 

And  yet  it  simply  contained  a  proposition 
from  the  Mica  Mine  Company  to  buy  the 
Crooked  Creek  Telegraph  Line,  with  all  its  rights 
and  privileges,  assuming  all  debts  and  liabilities, 
and  to  pay  therefor  the  sum  of  three  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  in  cash  ! 

Two  days  afterward,    the  line  was  formally 


252   WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

sold  to  the  Mica  Company,  and  the  Crooked 
Creek  Telegraph  Company  came  to  an  end. 

When  accounts  were  settled,  Aunt  Matilda's 
share  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  were  found  to 
amount  to  two  hundred  and  sixty-two  dollars 
and  fifty  cents,  which  Kate  deposited  with  Mr. 
Darby  for  safe  keeping. 

It  was  only  the  sky  that  now  looked  blue  to 
Harry  and  Kate. 

The  Akeville  people  were  a  good  deal  sur- 
prised at  this  apparently  singular  transaction  on 
the  part  of  the  Mica  Company,  but  before  long, 
their  reasons  for  helping  the  boys  to  put  up  their 
line  and  then  buying  it,  became  plain  enough. 

The  Mica  Company  had  invested  a  large  cap- 
ital in  mines  and  lands,  and  the  business  required 
telegraphic  communication  with  the  North. 
The  managers  knew  that  they  might  have  a 
good  deal  of  trouble  to  get  permission  to  put 
up  their  line  on  the  lands  between  the  mines 
and  Hetertown,  and  so  they  wisely  helped  the 
boys  to  put  up  the  line,  and  then  bought  it  of 
them,  with  all  their  rights  and  privileges. 

There  was  probably  some  sharp  practice  in 
this  transaction,  but  our  young  friends  and  Aunt 
Matilda  profited  by  it. 


A  MEETING. 

A  BOUT  a  week  after  the  dissolution  of  the 
•**•  Crooked  Creek  Company,  Harry  was  riding 
over  from  Hetertown,  and  had  nearly  reached 
the  creek  on  his  way  home,  when  he  met  George 
Purvis. 

This  was  their  first  meeting  since  their  fight, 
for  George  had  been  away  on  a  visit  to  some 
relatives  in  Richmond. 

When  Harry  saw  George  riding  slowly  to- 
ward him,  he  felt  very  much  embarrassed,  and 
very  much  annoyed  because  he  was  embar- 
rassed. 

How  should  he  meet  George  ?  What  should 
he  say  ;  or  should  he  say  anything? 

He  didn't  want  to  appear  anxious  to  "  make 
up  "  with  him,  nor  did  he  want  to  seem  as  if  he 
bore  malice  toward  him.  If  he  only  knew  how 
George  felt  about  it ! 


254      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

As  it  was,  he  wished  he  had  stopped  some- 
where on  the  road.  He  had  thought  of  stopping 
at  the  mill — why  hadn't  he  ?  That  would  just 
have  given  George  time  to  pass. 

Both  boys  appeared  to  be  riding  as  slowly  as 
their  horses  would  consent  to  go,  and  yet  when 
they  met,  Harry  had  not  half  made  up  his  mind 
what  he  would  say,  or  how  he  should  say  it,  or 
whether  it  would  be  better  or  not  to  say  any- 
thing. 

"  Hello,  George  !  "  said  he,  quite  unpremedi- 
tatedly. 

"  Hello  ! "  said  George,  reining  in  his  horse. 
"  Where  are  you  going?  " 

"  Going  home,"  said  Harry,  also  stopping  in 
the  road. 

Thus  the  quarrel  came  to  an  end. 

"  So  you've  sold  the  telegraph  ?  "  said  George. 

"  Yes,"  said  Harry.  "  And  I  think  we  made 
a  pretty  good  bargain.  I  didn't  think  we'd  do 
so  well  when  we  started." 

"  No,  it  didn't  look  like  it,"  said  George  ; 
"  but  those  mica  men  mayn't  find  it  such  a  good 
bargain  for  them." 

"  Why  ?  "  asked  Harry. 


A   MEETING.  2$ 5 

"  Well,  suppose  some  of  the  people  who  own 
the  land  that  the  line's  on,  don't  want  these 
strangers  to  have  a  telegraph  on  their  farms. 
What's  to  hinder  them  ordering  them  off?  " 

"  They  wouldn't  do  that,"  said  Harry.  "  None 
of  the  people  about  here  would  be  so  mean. 
They'd  know  that  it  might  upset  our  bargain. 
There  isn't  a  man  who  would  do  it." 

"  All  right,"  said  George.  "  I  hope  they 
won't.  But  how  are  you  going  to  keep  the  old 
woman  now  ?  " 

"  How  ?  "  said  Harry.  "  Why,  we  can  keep 
her  easy  enough.  We  got  three  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  from  the  Mica  Company." 

"  And  how  much  is  her  share  ?  " 

"  Over  two  hundred  and  sixty,"  answered 
Harry. 

"  Is  that  all  ?  "  said  George.  "  That  won't 
give  her  much  income.  The  interest  on  it  will 
only  be  about  fifteen  dollars  a  year,  and  she 
can't  live  on  that." 

"  But  we  didn't  think  of  using  only  the  in- 
terest," said  Harry. 

"  So  you're  going  to  break  in  on  the  princi- 
pal, are  you  ?  That's  a  poor  way  of  doing." 


256  WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

"  Oh,  we'll  get  along  well  enough,"  said  Harry. 
"  Two  hundred  and  sixty  dollars  is  a  good  deal 
of  money.  Good-by  !  I  must  get  on.  Come  up, 
Selim  !  " 

"  Good-by  !  "  said  George ;  and  he  spurred 
up  his  horse  and  rode  off  gayly. 

But  not  so  Harry.  He  was  quite  depressed 
in  spirits  by  George's  remarks.  He  wished  he 
had  not  met  him,  and  he  determined  that  he 
would  not  bother  his  head  by  looking  at  the 
matter  as  George  did.  It  was  ridiculous. 

But  the  more  he  thought  of  it,  the  more 
sorry  he  felt  that  he  had  met  George  Purvis. 


CHAPTER   XXIX 

ONCE   MORE  IN  THE   WOODS. 

"  T_I  ARRY,"  said  Kate,  the  next  day  after 
-*-  *-  this  meeting,  "when  are  you  going  to 
get  your  gun  back?" 

"  Get  my  gun  back !  "  exclaimed  Harry. 
"  How  am  I  to  do  that  ?  " 

"  Why,  there's  money  enough,"  answered 
Kate.  "  You  only  lent  your  gun-money  to  Aunt 
Matilda's  fund.  Take  out  enough,  and  get  your 
gun  back." 

"  That  sounds  very  well,"  said  Harry ;  "  but 
we  haven't  so  much  money,  after  all.  The  inter- 
est on  what  we  have  won't  begin  to  support 
Aunt  Matilda,  and  we  really  ought  not  to  break 
in  on  the  principal." 

Kate  did  not  immediately  answer.  She 
thought  for  a  while  and  then  she  said : 

"  Well,  that's  what  I  call  talking  nonsense. 
You  must  have  heard  some  one  say  something 


258      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

like  that.  You  never  got  it  out  of  your  own 
head." 

"  It  may  not  have  come  out  of  my  own 
head,"  said  Harry,  who  had  not  told  Kate  of  his 
meeting  with  George  Purvis,  "  but  it  is  true,  for 
all  fhat.  It  seems  to  me  that  whatever  we  do 
seems  all  right  at  first,  and  then  fizzles  out. 
This  telegraph  business  has  done  that,  straight 
along." 

"  No,  it  hasn't,"  said  Kate,  with  some  warmth. 
"  It's  turned  out  first-rate.  I  think  that  interest 
idea  is  all  stuff.  As  if  we  wanted  to  set  up  Aunt 
Matilda  with  an  income  that  would  last  forever! 
Here  comes  father.  I'm  going  to  ask  him  about 
the  gun." 

When  Mr.  Loudon  had  had  the  matter  laid 
before  him,  he  expressed  his  opinion  without 
any  hesitation. 

"  I  think,  Harry,"  said  he,  "  that  you  cer- 
tainly ought  to  go  and  get  your  gun." 

And  Harry  went  and  got  it. 

The  rest  of  that  day,  which  was  Saturday, 
was  delightful,  both  to  Harry  and  Kate.  Harry 
cleaned  and  polished  up  his  gun,  and  Kate  sat 
and  watched  him.  It  seemed  like  old  times. 


ONCE   MORE   IN   THE   WOODS.  259 

During  those  telegraphic  days,  when  they  were 
all  thinking  of  business  and  making  money,  they 
seemed  to  have  grown  old. 

But  all  that  was  over  now,  and  they  were  a 
girl  and  a  boy  again.  Late  in  the  afternoon, 
Harry  went  out  and  shot  half-a-dozen  partridges, 
which  were  cooked  for  supper,  and  Mrs.  Loudon 
said  that  that  seemed  like  the  good  old  style  of 
things.  She  had  feared  that  they  were  never 
going  to  have  any  more  game  on  their  table. 

On  the  following  Wednesday  there  was  a 
half-holiday,  and  Harry  was  about  to  start  off 
with  his  gun,  when  he  proposed  that  Kate  should 
go  with  him. 

11  But  you're  going  after  birds,"  said  Kate, 
"  and  I  can't  go  where  you'll  want  to  go — 
among  the  stubble  and  bushes." 

"  Oh !  I  sha'n't  go  much  after  birds,"  said 
Harry.  "  I  wanted  to  borrow  Captain  Caseby's 
dog,  but  he's  going  to  use  him  himself  to-day, 
and  so  I  don't  expect  to  get  much  game.  But 
we  can  have  a  good  walk  in  the  woods." 

"'All  right,"  said  Kate.  "I'll  go  along." 
And  away  she  went  for  her  hat. 

The  walk  was  charming.     It  was  now  Sep- 


260  WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

tember,  and  the  fields  were  full  of  bright-colored 
fall  flowers,  while  here  and  there  a  sweet-gum 
tree  began  to  put  on  autumn  tints.  The  sun 
was  bright,  and  there  was  a  strong  breeze  full 
of  piney  odors  from  the  forests  to  the  west. 

They  saw  no  game  ;  and  when  they  had 
rambled  about  for  an  hour  or  so,  they  sat  down 
under  an  oak-tree  on  the  edge  of  the  woods, 
and  while  they  were  talking,  an  idea  came  into 
Harry's  head.  He  picked  a  great  big  fat  toad- 
stool that  was  growing  near  the  roots  of  the 
tree,  and  carrying  it  about  sixty  feet  from  the 
tree,  he  stuck  it  up  on  a  bush. 

"  Now  then,"  said  he,  taking  up  his  gun, 
cocking  it,  and  handing  it  to  Kate,  "  you  take  a 
shot  at  that  mark." 

"  Do  you  mean  that  I  shall  shoot  at  it  ? " 
exclaimed  Kate. 

"Certainly,"  said  Harry.  "You  ought  to 
know  how  to  shoot.  And  it  won't  be  the  first 
time  you  have  fired  a  gun.  Take  a  shot." 

"All  right,"  said  Kate.  And  she  took  off 
her  hat  and  threw  it  on  the  grass.  Then  she 
took  the  gun  and  raised  it  to  a  level  with  her 
eye. 


ONCE   MORE   IN   THE   WOODS.  26l 

"  Be  easy  now,"  said  Harry.  "  Hold  the 
butt  close  against  your  shoulder.  Take  your 
time,  and  aim  right  at  the  middle  of  the  mark." 

"  I'm  afraid  I'm  shutting  the  wrong  eye," 
said  Kate.  "  I  always  do." 

"  Shut  your  left  eye,"  said  Harry.  "  Get  the 
sight  right  between  your  other  eye  and  the 
mark." 

Kate  took  a  good  long  aim,  and  then,  sum- 
moning all  her  courage,  she  pulled  the  trigger. 

The  gun  went  off  with  a  tremendous  bang ! 
The  toadstool  trembled  for  an  instant,  and  then 
tumbled  off  the  bush. 

"  Hurra  !  "  shouted  Harry.  "  You've  hit  it 
fair !  "  And  he  ran  and  brought  it  to  her,  rid- 
dled with  shot-holes.  Kate  was  delighted  with 
her  success,  and  would  have  been  glad  to  have 
spent  the  rest  of  the  afternoon  firing  at  a  mark. 
But  Harry  was  not  well  enough  supplied  with 
powder  and  shot  for  that.  However,  he  gave 
her  another  shot  at  a  piece  of  paper  on  the  bush. 
She  made  three  shot-holes  in  it,  and  Harry  said 
that  would  do  very  well.  He  then  loaded  up 
again,  and  then  they  started  off  for  home.  The 
path  they  took  led  through  a  corner  of  the  woods. 


262      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

They  had  not  gone  far  before  they  met 
Gregory  Montague. 

"  Oh,  Mah'sr  Harry  !  "  said  Gregory,  "  I  done 
foun'  a  bees'  nes'." 

"Where?"  cried  Harry. 

"  Down  in  a  big  tree  in  de  holler,  dar,"  point- 
ing over  toward  the  thickest  part  of  the  woods. 
"  You  have  to  go  fru  de  brush  and  bushes,  but 
it's  a  powerful  big  nest,  Mah'sr  Harry,  right  in 
de  holler  ob  de  tree." 

"  Are  you  sure  it's  a  bees'  nest  ?  "  said  Harry. 
"  How  do  you  know  ?  " 

"  I  knows  it's  a  bees'  nest,"  said  Gregory, 
somewhat  reproachfully.  "  Didn't  I  see  de  bees 
goin'  in  an'  out  fru  a  little  hole  ?  " 

"  Kate,"  said  Harry,  "  you  hold  this  gun  a 
little  while.  I'll  run  down  there  and  see  if  it 
is  really  a  bee-tree  that  he  has  found.  Hold  it 
under  your  arm,  that  way,  with  the  muzzle 
down.  That's  it.  I'll  be  back  directly."  And 
away  he  ran  with  Gregory. 

And  now  Kate  was  left  alone  in  the  woods 
with  a  gun  under  her  arm.  It  was  a  new  experi- 
ence for  her.  She  felt  proud  and  pleased  to  have 
control  of  a  gun,  and  it  was  not  long  before  she 


ONCE   MORE   IN   THE  WOODS.  263 

began  to  think  that  it  would  be  a  splendid  thing 
if  she  could  shoot  something  that  would  do  for 
supper.  How  surprised  they  would  all  be  if  she 
should  bring  home  some  game  that  she  had  shot, 
all  by  herself! 

She  made  up  her  mind  that  she  would  do  it, 
if  she  could  see  anything  to  shoot. 

And  so  she  walked  quietly  along  the  path 
with  her  thumb  on  the  hammer  of  the  gun,  all 
ready  to  cock  it  the  instant  she  should  see  a 
good  chance  for  a  shot. 


CHAPTER   XXX. 
A  GIRL  AND  A  GUN. 

A  SHORT  distance  beyond  the  place  where 
**•  Kate  had  been  left,  there  was  a  small  by- 
path ;  and  when,  still  carefully  carrying  her  gun, 
she  reached  this  path,  Kate  stopped.  Here 
would  be  a  good  place,  she  thought,  to  wait  for 
game.  Something  would  surely  come  into  that 
little  path,  if  she  kept  herself  concealed. 

So  she  knelt  down  behind  a  small  bush  that 
grew  at  a  corner  of  the  two  paths,  and  putting 
her  gun  through  the  bush,  rested  the  barrel  in 
a  crotch. 

The  gun  now  pointed  up  the  by-path,  and 
there  was  an  opening  in  the  bush  through  which 
Kate  could  see  for  some  distance. 

Here,  then,  she  watched  and  waited. 

The  first  thing  that  crossed  the  path  was  a 
very  little  bird.  It  hopped  down  from  a  twig,  it 
jerked  its  head  about,  it  pecked  at  something 


A  GIRL  AND  A  GUN.  265 

on  the  ground,  and  then  flew  up  into'  a  tree. 
Kate  would  not  have  shot  it  on  any  account,  for 
she  knew  it  was  not  good  to  eat ;  but  she  could 
not  help  wondering  how  people  ever  did  shoot 
birds,  if  they  did  riot  "  hold  still "  any  longer 
than  that  little  creature  did. 

Then  there  appeared  a  small  brown  lizard. 
It  came  very  rapidly  right  down  the  path  toward 
Kate. 

"  If  it  comes  all  the  way,"  thought  Kate,  "  I 
shall  have  to  jump." 

But  it  did  not  come  all  the  way,  and  Kate 
remained  quiet. 

For  some  time  no  living  creatures,  except 
butterflies  and  other  insects,  showed  themselves. 
Then,  all  of  a  sudden,  there  popped  into  the 
middle  of  the  path,  not  very  far  from  Kate,  a 
real,  live  rabbit ! 

It  was  quite  a  good-sized  rabbit,  and  Kate 
trembled  from  head  to  foot.  Here  was  a  chance 
indeed  ! 

To  carry  home  a  fat  rabbit  would  be  a  tri- 
umph. She  aimed  the  gun  as  straight  toward 
the  rabbit  as  she  could,  having  shut  the  wrong 
eye  several  times  before  she  got  the  matter 


266      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

arranged  to  her  satisfaction.  Then  she  remem- 
bered that  she  had  not  cocked  the  gun,  and  so 
she  had  to  do  that,  which,  of  course,  made  it 
necessary  for  her  to  aim  all  over  again. 

She  cocked  only  one  hammer,  and  she  did  it 
so  gently  that  it  did  not  frighten  the  rabbit, 
although  he  flirted  his  ears  a  little  when  he 
heard  the  "click,  click!"  Everything  was  so 
quiet  that  he  probably  thought  he  heard  some 
insect,  probably  a  young  or  ignorant  cricket  that 
did  not  know  how  to  chirp  properly. 

So  he  sat  very  still  and  nibbled  at  some  leaves 
that  were  growing  by  the  side  of  the  path.  He 
looked  very  pretty  as  he  sat  there,  taking  his 
dainty  little  bites,  and  jerking  up  his  head  every 
now  and  then,  as  if  he  were  expecting  some- 
body. 

"  I  must  wait  till  he's  done  eating,"  thought 
Kate.  "  It  would  be  cruel  to  shoot  him  now." 

Then  he  stopped  nibbling  all  of  a  sudden,  as 
if  he  had  just  thought  of  something,  and  as  soon 
as  he  remembered  what  it  was,  he  twisted  his 
head  around  and  began  to  scratch  one  of  his 
long  ears  with  his  hind  foot.  He  looked  so 
funny  doing  this  that  Kate  came  near  laughing  ; 


A   GIRL  AND   A   GUN.  267 

but,  fortunately,  she  remembered  that  that  would 
not  do  just  then. 

When  he  had  finished  scratching  one  ear,  he 
seemed  to  consider  the  question  whether  or  not 
he  should  scratch  the  other  one  ;  but  he  finally 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  wouldn't.  He'd 
rather  hop  over  to  the  other  side  of  the  path  and 
see  what  was  there. 

This,  of  course,  made  it  necessary  for  Kate  to 
take  a  new  aim  at  him. 

Whatever  it  was  that  he  found  on  the  other 
side  of  the  path  it  grew  under  the  ground,  and 
he  stuck  his  head  down  as  far  as  he,  could  get 
it,  and  bent  up  his  back,  as  if  he  were  about 
to  try  to  turn  a  somersault,  or  to  stand  on  his 
head. 

"  How  round  and  soft  he  is!  "  thought  Kate. 
"  How  I  should  like  to  pat  him.  I  wonder  when 
he'll  find  whatever  it  is  that  he's  looking  for! 
What  a  cunning  little  tail !  " 

The  cunning  little  tail  was  soon  clapped  flat 
on  the  ground,  and  Mr.  Bunny  raised  himself  up 
and  sat  on  it.  He  lifted  his  nose  and  his  fore- 
paws  in  the  air  and  seemed  to  be  smelling  some- 
thing good.  His  queer  little  nose  wiggled  so 


268      WHAT.  MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

comically  that  Kate  again  came  very  near  burst- 
ing out  laughing. 

"  How  I  would  love  to  have  him  for  a  pet !  " 
she  said  to  herself. 

After  sniffing  a  short  time,  the  rabbit  seemed 
to  come  to  the  conclusion  that  he  was  mistaken, 
after  all,  and  that  he  didn't  really  smell  anything 
so  very  good.  He  seemed  disappointed,  how- 
ever, for  he  lifted  up  one  of  his  little  fore-paws 
and  rubbed  it  across  his  eyes.  But,  perhaps,  he 
wasn't  so  very  sorry,  but  only  felt  like  taking  a 
nap,  for  he  stretched  himself  out  as  far  as  he 
could,  and  then  drew  himself  up  in  a  bunch,  as 
if  he  were  going  to  sleep. 

"  I  wish  he  wouldn't  do  that,"  thought  Kate, 
anxiously.  "  I  don't  want  to  shoot'  him  in  his 
sleep." 

But  Bunny  wasn't  asleep.  He  was  thinking. 
He  was  trying  to  make  up  his  mind  about  some- 
thing. There  was  no  way  of  finding  out  what  it 
was  that  he  was  trying  to  make  up  his  mind 
about.  He  might  have  been  wondering  why 
some  plants  didn't  grow  with  their  roots  upper- 
most, so  that  he  could  get  at  them  without  rub- 
bing his  little  nose  in  the  dirt ;  or  why  trees 


A   GIRL  AND   A  GUN.  269 

were  not  good  to  eat  right  through  trunk  and 
all.  Or  he  might  have  been  trying  to  determine 
whether  it  would  be  better  for  him  to  go  over  to 
'Lijah  Ford's  garden,  and  try  to  get  a  bite  at 
some  cabbage-leaves  ;  or  to  run  down  to  the  field 
just  outside  of  the  woods,  where  he  would  very 
likely  meet  a  certain  little  girl  rabbit  that  he 
knew  very  well. 

Bui  whatever  it  was,  he  had  no  sooner  made 
up  his  mind  about  it  than  he  gave  one  big  hop 
and  was  out  of  sight  in.  a  minute. 

11  There  !  "  cried  Kate.     "  He's  gone  !  " 

"  I  reckon  he  thought  he'd  guv  you  'bout 
chance  enough,  Miss  Kate,"  said  a  voice  behind 
her,  and  turning  hurriedly,  she  saw  Uncle  Brad- 
dock. 

"Why,  how  did  you  come  here?  "she  ex- 
claimed. "  I  didn't  hear  you." 

"  Reckon  not,  Miss  Kate,"  said  the  old  man. 
"  You  don't  s'pose  I  was  agoin'  to  frighten 
away  yer  game.  I  seed  you  a-stoopin'  down 
aimin'  at  somethin',  and  I  jist  creeped  along 
a  little  at  a  time,  to  see  what  it  was.  Why,  what 
did  come  over  you,  Miss  Kate,  to  let  that  ole  har 
go?  It  was  the  puttiest  shot  I  ever  did  see." 


2/0      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

"  Oh  !  I  couldn't  fire  at  the  dear  little  thing 
while  it  was  eating  so  prettily,"  said  Kate,  letting 
down  the  hammer  of  the  gun  as  easily  as  she 
could ;  "  and  then  he  cut  up  such  funny  little 
capers  that  I  came  near  laughing  right  out.  I 
couldn't  shoot  him  while  he  was  so  happy,  and 
I'm  glad  I  didn't  do  it  at  all." 

"  All  right,  Miss  Kate,"  said  Uncle  Braddock, 
as  he  started  off  on  his  way  through  the  woods  ; 
"  that  may  be  a  werry  pious  way  to  go  a-huntin', 
but  it  won't  bring  you  in  much  meat." 

When  Harry  came  back  from  hunting  for  the 
bee-tree,  which  he  didn't  find,  he  saw  Kate 
walking  slowly  down  the  path  toward  the  village, 
the  gun  under  her  arm,  with  the  muzzle  carefully 
pointed  toward  the  ground. 


CHAPTER    XXXI. 
A  MAN  IN  A  BOAT. 

a  very  pleasant  afternoon  that  fall,  a  man 
came  down  Crooked  Creek  in  a  small  flat- 
bottomed  boat.  He  rowed  leisurely,  as  if  he 
had  been  rowing  a  long  distance  and  felt  a  little 
tired.  In  one  end  of  the  boat  was  a  small  trunk. 
As  this  man,  who  had  red  hair,  and  a  red  face, 
and  large  red  hands,  pulled  slowly  along  the 
creek,  turning  his  head  every  now  and  then  to 
see  where  he  was  going,  he  gradually  approached 
the  bridge  that  crossed  the  creek  near  "  One- 
eyed  Lewston's"  cabin.  Just  before  he  reached 
the  bridge,  he  noticed  what  seemed  to  him  a 
curious  shadow  running  in  a  thin  straight  line 
across  the  water.  Resting  on  his  oars,  and  look- 
ing up  to  see  what  there  was  above  him  to  throw 
such  a  shadow,  he  perceived  a  telegraph  wire 
stretching  over  the  creek,  and  losing  itself  to 
sight  in  the  woods  on  each  side. 


2/2      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN  EXPECTED. 

A  telegraph  wire  was  an  ordinary  sight  to 
this  man,  but  this  particular  wire  seemed  to  as- 
tonish him  greatly. 

"  What  on  earth  is  this  ?  "  he  asked  out  loud. 
But  there  was  no  one  to  answer  him,  and  so, 
after  puzzling  his  mind  for  a  few  minutes,  he 
rowed  on. 

When  that  man  reached  the  point  in  the 
creek  to  which  he  was  bound,  and,  with  his  trunk 
on  his  shoulder,  walked  up  to  the  house  where 
he  used  to  live,  he  was  still  more  astonished  ; 
for  a  telegraph  wire  ran  through  one  corner  of 
the  back  yard. 

Cousin  Maria  now  lived  in  this  house,  and 
George  Mason  was  coming  to  pay  her  a  visit. 
His  appearance  was  rather  a  surprise  to  her,  but 
still  she  welcomed  him.  She  was  a  good  soul. 

Almost  before  he  asked  her  how  she  was,  he 
put  the  question  to  her  : 

"What  telegraph  line's  that?" 

So  Cousin  Maria  wiped  her  hands  on  her 
long  gingham  apron  (she  had  been  washing  her 
best  set  of  china),  and  she  sat  down  and  told 
him  all  about  it. 

"  You  see,  George,"  said  she,  "  that  there  line 


A   MAN  IN  A  BOAT.  273 

was  the  boys'  telegraph  line,  afore  they  sold  it  to 
the  mica  people  ;  and  when  the  boys  put  it  up 
they  expected  to  make  a  heap  of  money,  which 
I  reckon  they  didn't  do,  or  else  they  wouldn't 
have  sold  it.  But  these  mica  people  wanted  it, 
and  they  lengthened  it  at  both  ends,  and  bought 
it  of  the  boys — or  rather  of  Harry  Loudon,  for  he 
was  the  smartest  of  the  lot,  and  the  real  owner 
of  the  thing — he  and  his  sister  Kate — as  far  as  I 
could  see.  And  when  they  stretched  the  line 
over  to  Hetertown,  they  came  to  me  and  told 
me  how  the  line  ran  along  the  road  most  of  the 
way,  but  that  they  could  save  a  lot  of  time  and 
money  (though  I  don't  see  how  they  could  save 
much  of  a  lot  of  money  when,  accordin'  to  all 
accounts,  the  whole  line  didn't  cost  much,  bein' 
just  fastened  to  pine-trees,  trimmed  off,  and  if 
it  had  cost  much,  them  boys  couldn't  have  built 
it,  for  I  reckon  the  mica  people  didn't  help  'em 
a  great  deal,  after  all)  if  I  would  let  them  cut 
across  my  grounds  with  their  wire,  and  I  hadn't 
no  objection,  anyway,  for  the  line  didn't  do  no 
harm  up  there  in  the  air,  and  so  I  said  certainly 
they  might,  and  they  did,  and  there  it  is." 

When    George   Mason    heard    all    this,    he 
12* 


2/4      WHAT  MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

walked  out  of  the  back-door  and  over  to  the 
wood-pile,  where  he  got  an  axe  and  cut  down 
the  pole  that  was  in  Cousin  Maria's  back  yard. 
And  when  the  pole  fell,  it  broke  the  wire,  just  as 
Mr.  Martin  had  got  to  the  sixth  word  of  a  mes- 
sage he  was  sending  over  to  Hetertown. 

Cousin  Maria  was  outraged. 

"  George  Mason  ! "  said  she,  "  you  can  stay 
here  as  long  as  you  like,  and  you  can  have  part 
of  whatever  I've  got  in  the  house  to  eat,  but  I'll 
never  sit  down  to  the  table  with  you  till  you've 
mended  that  wire  and  nailed  it  to  another  pole." 

"  All  right,"  answered  George  Mason. 
"  Then  I'll  eat  alone." 

When  Mr.  Martin  and  the  mica-mine  people 
and  the  Akeville  people  and  Harry  and  Kate 
and  all  the  boys  and  everybody  black  and  white 
heard  what  had  happened,  there  was  great  ex- 
citement. It  was  generally  agreed  that  some- 
thing must  be  done  with  George  Mason.  He 
had  no  more  right  to  cut  down  that  pole  because 
he  had  once  lived  on  the  place,  than  he  had  to 
go  and  cut  down  any  of  the  neighbors'  bean- 
poles. 

So  the  sheriff  and  some  deputy  sheriffs  (Tony 


A   MAN  IN  A  BOAT.  275 

Kirk  among  them),  and  a  constable  and  a  num- 
ber of  volunteer  constables,  went  off  after  George 
Mason,  to  bring  him  to  justice. 

It  was  more  than  a  week  before  they  found 
him,  and  it  is  probable  that  they  would  not 
'have  captured  him  at  all,  had  he  not  persisted  in 
staying  in  the  neighborhood,  so  as  to  be  on 
hand  with  his  axe,  in  case  the  line  should  be 
repaired. 

"  It's  all  along  of  my  tellin'  him  that  that 
line  was  got  up  by  them  Loudon  children,"  said 
Cousin  Maria.  "  He  hates  Mr.  Loudon  worse 
than  pisen,  because  he  was  the  man  that  found 
out  all  his  tricks." 

Mason  was  taken  to  the  court-house  and 
locked  up  in  the  jail.  Almost  all  the  people  of 
the  county,  and  some  people  belonging  to  ad- 
joining counties,  made  up  their  minds  to  be  at 
the  court-house  when  his  trial  should  take  place. 

On  the  second  night  of  his  imprisonment, 
George  Mason  forced  open  a  window  of  his  cell 
and  went  away.  And  what  was  more,  he  staid 
away.  He  had  no  desire  to  be  at  the  court- 
house when  his  trial  took  place. 

No  one  felt  more  profound  satisfaction  when 


2/6      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

George  Mason  left  the  country,  and  the  tele- 
graph line  was  once  more  in  working  order,  than 
Harry  and  Kate. 

They  had  an  idea  that  if  George  Mason 
should  persist  in  cutting  the  telegraph  line,  the 
Mica  Company  would  give  it  up,  and  that  they 
might  be  called  upon  to  refund  the  money  on 
which  Aunt  Matilda  depended  for  support. 
They  had  been  told  that  they  need  not  trouble 
themselves  about  this,  as  the  Mica  Company 
had  taken  all  risks ;  but  still  they  were  delighted 
when  they  heard  that  George  Mason  had  cleared 
out,  and  that  there  was  every  reason  to  suppose 
that  he  would  not  come  back. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

AUNT  MATILDA'S  LETTER. 

afternoon,  about  the  end  of  October, 
Aunt  Matilda  was  sitting  in  her  big 
straight-backed  chair,  on  one  side  of  her  fire- 
place. There  was  a  wood  fire  blazing  on  the 
hearth,  for  the  days  were  getting  cool  and  the 
old  woman  liked  to  be  warm.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  fireplace  sat  Uncle  Braddock.  Sitting 
on  the  floor,  between  the  two,  were  John  Wil- 
liam Webster  and  Dick  Ford.  In  the  doorway 
stood  Gregory  Montague.  He  was  not  on  very 
good  terms  with  Aunt  Matilda,  and  was  rather 
afraid  to  come  in  all  the  way.  On  the  bed  sat 
Aunt  Judy. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  Aunt  Matilda 
was  giving  a  party.  Nothing  of  the  kind. 
These  colored  people  were  not  very  much  en- 
grossed with  business  at  this  time  of  the  year  ; 
and  as  it'  was  not  far  from  supper-time,  and  as 


2/8      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

they  all  happened  to  be  near  Aunt  Matilda's 
cabin  that  afternoon,  they  thought  they'd  step 
in  and  see  her. 

"  Does  any  of  you  uns  know,"  asked  Aunt 
Matilda,  "  whar  Ole  Miles  is  now?  Dey  tells 
me  he  don't  carry  de  mails  no  more." 

"  No,"  said  John  William  Webster,  who  was 
always  quick  to  speak.  "  Dey  done  stop  dat  ar. 
Dey  got  so  many  letters  up  dar  at  de  mica  mines, 
dat  dey  send  all  the  big  ones  to  de  pos '-office  in 
a  bag  an'  a  buggy,  and  dey  send  de  little  ones 
ober  de  telegraph." 

"But  whar's  Ole  Miles?"  repeated  Aunt 
Matilda. 

"  He's  a-doin'  jobs  up  aroun'  de  mines,"  said 
Uncle  Braddock.  "  De  las'  time  I  see  him  he 
was  a-whitewashin'  a  fence." 

"  Well,  I  wants  to  see  Ole  Miles,"  said  Aunt 
Matilda.  "  I  wants  him  to  carry  a  letter  fur 
me." 

"  I'll  carry  yer  letter,  Aunt  Matilda,"  said  Dick 
Ford  ;  and  Gregory  Montague,  anxious  to  curry 
favor,  as  it  was  rapidly  growing  near  to  ash-cake 
time,  stated  in  a  loud  voice  that  he'd  take  it 
"  fus  thing  in  de  mornin'." 


AUNT  MATILDA'S  LETTER.  279 

"  I  don'  want  none  o'  you  uns,"  said  Aunt  Ma- 
tilda. "  Ole  Miles  is  used  to  carryin'  letters,  and 
I  wants  him  to  carry  my  letter.  Ef  you'd  like 
ter  keep  yerse'f  out  o'  mischief,  you  Greg'ry,  you 
kin  go  'long  and  tell  him  I  wants  him  to  carry  a 
letter  fur  me." 

"  I'll  do  that,"  said  Gregory,  "  fus'  thing  in  de 
mornin'." 

"  Better  go  'long  now,"  said  Aunt  Matilda. 

"  Too  late  now,  Aunt  Matilda,"  said  Gregory, 
anxiously.  "  Couldn't  git  dar  'fore  dark,  no 
how,  and  he'd  be  gone  away,  and  I  'spect  I 
couldn't  fin'  him." 

"  Whar  is  yer  letter  ?  "  asked  Uncle  Brad- 
dock. 

"  Oh,  'tain't  writ  yit,"  said  Aunt  Matilda.  "  I 
wants  some  o'  you  uns  to  write  it  fur  me.  Kin 
any  o'  you  youngsters  write  writin'  ?  " 

"  Yes,  ma'am,"  said  John  William  Webster. 
"  Greg'ry  kin  write  fus-rate.  He's  been  ter 
school  mor'n  a  month." 

"  You  shet  up  !  "  cried  Gregory,  indignantly. 
"  Ise  been  to  school  mor'n  dat.  Ise  been  free 
or  four  weeks.  And  I  know'd  how  to  write 
some  'fore  I  went.  Mah'sr  George  teached  me." 


280   WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

"  You'd  better  git  Miss  Kate  to  write  yer 
letter,"  said  Aunt  Judy.  "  She'd  spell  it  out  a 
great  sight  better  dan  Gregory  Montague,  I 
reckons." 

"  No,  I  don't  want  Miss  Kate  to  write  dis 
hyar  letter.  She  does  enough,  let  alone  writin' 
letters  fur  me.  Come  'long  hyar,  you  Greg'ry. 
Reach  up  dar  on  dat  shelf  and  git  dat  piece  o' 
paper  behin'  de  'lasses  gourd." 

Gregory  obeyed  promptly,  and  pulled  out  a 
half-sheet  of  note-paper  from  behind  the  gourd. 
The  paper  had  been  there  a  good  while,  and  was 
rather  yellow-looking.  There  was  also  a  drop 
of  molasses  on  one  corner  of  it,  which  John 
William  said  would  do  to  seal  it  up  with ;  but 
Gregory  wiped  it  carefully  off  on  the  leg  of  his 
trousers. 

"  Now,  den,"  said  Aunt  Matilda ;  "  sot  yer- 
se'f  right  down  dar  on  de  floor.  Git  off  dat  ar 
smooth  board,  you  Dick,  an'  let  Greg'ry  put  his 
paper  dar.  I  hain't  got  no  pen,  but  hyar's  a 
pencil  Miss  Kate  lef  one  day.  But  it  ain't  got 
no  pint.  Ef  some  of  you  boys  has  got  a  knife, 
ye  kin  put  a  pint  to  it." 

Uncle  Braddock  dived  into  the  recesses  of  his 


AUNT  MATILDA'S  LETTER.  281 

dressing-gown,  and  produced  a  great  jack-knife, 
with  a  crooked  iron  blade  and  a  hickory  handle. 

"  Look  a-dar  !  "  cried  John  William  Webster. 
"  Uncle  Braddock's  agwine  ter  chop  de  pencil 
up  fur  kindlin'-wood." 

"  None  o'  yer  laughin'  at  dis  knife,"  said 
Uncle  Braddock,  with  a  frown.  "  I  done  made 
dis  hyar  knife  mese'f." 

A  better  knife,  however,  was  produced  by 
Dick  Ford,  and  the  pencil  was  sharpened.  Then 
Gregory  Montague  stretched  himself  out  on  the 
floor,  resting  on  his  elbows,  with  the  paper  before 
him  and  the  pencil  in  his  hand. 

"  Is  you  ready?  "  said  Aunt  Matilda. 

"  All  right,"  said  Gregory.  "  Yer  can  go 
'long." 

Aunt  Matilda  put  her  elbows  on  her  knees 
and  her  chin  in  her  hands,  and  looked  into  the 
fire.  Gregory  and  every  one  else  waited  quite 
a  while  for  her  to  begin. 

"  Ye  had  better  put  de  number  ob  de  year 
fus,"  suggested  Uncle  Braddock. 

"  Well,  ye  'kin  put  dat,"  said  Aunt  Matilda, 
"  while  I'm  a-workin'  out  de  letter  in  my  mind." 

There  now  arose  a  discussion  as  to  what  was 


282      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

the  "  number  of  the  year."  Aunt  Judy  knew 
that  the  "  war  "  was  somewhere  along  in  "-sixty," 
and  thought  it  must  certainly  be  seventy  or 
eighty  by  this  time ;  while  Uncle  Braddock,  who 
was  accustomed  to  look  back  a  long  way,  was 
•  sure  it  was  "  nigh  on  to  a  hun'red." 

Dick  Ford,  however,  although  he  was  not  a 
writer,  could  read,  and  had  quite  a  fancy  for 
spelling  out  a  newspaper,  and  he  asserted  that 
the  year  was  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy,  and 
so  it  was  put  down  "  180070,"  much  to  the  dis- 
gust of  Uncle  Braddock,  who  didn't  believe  it 
was  so  much. 

"  Yer  ought  to  say  ef  it's  before  Christ  or 
after  Christ,"  said  Aunt  Judy.  "  Old  Mah'sr 
Truly  Mathers  'splained  dat  to  me,  'bout  years." 

"  Well,  then,"  said  Gregory,  ready  with  his 
pencil,  "  which  is  it  ?  " 

Dick  Ford  happened  to  know  a  little  on  the 
subject,  and  so  he  told  Gregory  how  he  should 
put  down  "  B.  C."  for  "  before  Christ,"  and 
"  A.  C."  for  "  after  Christ,"  and  that  "  A.  C." 
was  right  for  this  year. 

This  was  set  down  in  Gregory's  most  care- 
ful lettering. 


AUNT  MATILDA'S  LETTER.  283 

"  Dat  dar  hind  letter's  got  the  stumic-ache," 
said  John  William  Webster,  putting  his  long 
finger,  black  on  top  and  yellow  underneath,  on 
the  C,  which  was  rather  doubled  up. 

Nobody  thought  of  the  month  or  the  day, 
and  so  the  letter  was  considered  dated. 

"  Now,  den,"  said   Gregory,  "who's  it  to  ?  " 

"  Jist  never  you  mind  who's  it  to,"  answered 
Aunt  Matilda.  "  I  know,  an'  that's  enough  to 
know." 

"  But  you've  got  to  put  de  name  on  de 
back,"  said  Aunt  Judy,  anxiously. 

"  Dat's  so,"  said  Uncle  Braddock,  with  equal 
anxiety. 

"  No,  I  hain't,"  remarked  Aunt  Matilda. 
"  I'll  tell  Ole  Miles  who  to  take  it  to.  Put  down 
for  de  fus'  thing  : 

"  '  Ise  been  thinkin'  fur  a  long  time  dat  I  oughter  to  write  about 
dis  hyar  matter,  and  I  s'pose  you  is  the  right  one  to  write  to.'  " 

"  What  matter's  dat  ?  "  asked  Aunt  Judy. 

"Neber  you  mind,"  replied  Aunt  Matilda. 

Slowly  and  painfully,  Gregory  printed  this 
sentence,  with  Dick  Ford  close  on  one  side  of 
him  ;  with  John  William's  round,  woolly  head 
stuck  almost  under  his  chin ;  with  Uncle  Brad- 


284      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

dock  leaning  over  him  from  his  chair;  and 
Aunt  Judy  standing,  peering  down  upon  him 
from  behind. 

"  Dat's  wrong,"  said  Dick  Ford,  noticing 
that  Gregory  had  written  the  last  words  thus : 
"  rite  i  ter  rite  2."  "  She  don't  want  no  figgers." 

"  What  did  she  say  'em  fur,  den  ?  "  asked 
Gregory. 

"  Now,  Greg'ry,"  said  Aunt  Matilda,  "  put 
down  dis : 

"'  I  don't  want  to  make  no  trouble,  and  I  wouldn't  do  nothin' 
to  trouble  dem  chillen  ;  but  Ise  been  a-waitin'  a  good  long 
while  now,  and  I  been  thinkin'  I'd  better  write  an'  see  'bout  it.' " 

"  What  you  want  to  see  'bout  ? "  asked 
Aunt  Judy,  quickly. 

"  Neber  you  min'  what  it  is,"  replied  Aunt 
Matilda.  "  Go  on,  you  Greg'ry,  and  put  down  : 

'"Dat  money  o'  mine  was  reel  money,  and  when  I  put  it  in, 
I  thought  I'd  git  it  back  ag'in  afore  dis.' " 

"  How  much  was  it,  Aunt  Matilda?"  asked 
Uncle  Braddock,  while  Aunt  Judy  opened  her 
eyes  and  her  mouth,  simply  because  she  could 
not  open  her  ears  any  wider  than  they  were. 

"  Dat's  none  o'  your  business,"  replied  Aunt 
Matilda.  "  Now  put  down  : 


AUNT  MATILDA'S  LETTER.  285 

"  '  I  'spect  dem  telegram  fixin's  cost  a  lot  o'  money,  but  I  don't 
'spect  it's  jist  right  to  take  all  an  ole  woman's  money  to  build 
'em,'" 

"  Lor's  ee ! "  ejaculated  Uncle  Braddock, 
"  dat's  so  !  " 

"  Now  you  Greg'ry,"  continued  Aunt  Ma- 
tilda, "put  down : 

"  '  Ef  you  write  me  a  letter  'bout  dat  ar  money,  you  kin  giv  it 
to  Ole  Miles.' 

Now  sign  my  name  to  dat  ar  letter." 

The  next  day,  having  been  summoned  by 
the  obliging  Gregory,  Old  Miles  made  his  ap- 
pearance in  Aunt  Matilda's  cabin. 

The  old  woman  explained  to  him  that  the 
letter  was  so  important  that  she  could  trust  it  to 
no  one  who  was  not  accustomed  to  carry  letters, 
and  Miles  was  willing  and  proud  to  exercise  his 
skill  for  her  benefit. 

"  Now,  den,"  said  she  ;  "  take  dis  hyar  letter 
to  de  man  what  works  de  telegrum  in  Heter- 
town,  and  fotch  me  back  an  answer." 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 
TIME  TO  STOP. 

A  BOUT  a  week  after  this  letter  was  written, 
•**»  Kate  said  to  Harry : 

"You  really  ought  to  have  Aunt  Matilda's 
roof  mended.  There  are  several  holes  in  it.  I 
think  her  house  ought  to  be  made  tight  and 
warm  before  winter;  don't  you?" 

"  Certainly,"  said  Harry.  "  I'll  get  some 
shingles  and  nail  them  over  the  holes  to-mor- 
row." 

The  next  day  was  Saturday,  and  a  rainy  day. 
About  ten  o'clock  Harry  went  to  Aunt  Matilda's 
cabin  with  his  'shingles  and  a  hammer  and  nails. 
Kate  walked  over  with  him. 

To  their  surprise  they  found  the  old  woman 
in  bed. 

"Why,  what  is  the  matter,  Aunt  Matilda?" 
asked  Kate.  "  Are  you  sick  ?  " 

'*  No,   honey,    I    isn't    sick,"    said   the    old 


TIME   TO   STOP.  287 

woman  ;  "  but  somehow  or  other  I  don't  keer  to 
git  up.  Ise  mighty  comfurt'ble  jist  as  I  is." 

"  But  you  ought  to  have  your  breakfast,"ksaid 
Kate.  "  What  is  this  basin  of  water  doing  on 
the  foot  of  your  bed  ?  " 

"  Oh,  don't  'sturb  dat  ar  tin  basin,"  said 
Aunt  Matilda.  "  Dat's  to  ketch  der  rain.  Bar's 
a  hole  right  ober  de  foot  o'  de  bed." 

"  But  you  won't  want  that  now,"  said  Kate. 
"  Harry's  going  to  nail  shingles  over  all  the  holes 
in  your  roof." 

"  An'  fall  down  an'  break  his  neck.  He 
needn't  do  no  sich  foolishness.  Dat  ar  tin 
basin's  did  me  fur  years  in  and  years  out,  and  I 
neber  kicked  it  ober  yit.  Dere's  no  use  a-mend- 
in'  holes  dis  time  o'  day." 

"  It's  a  very  good  time  of  day,"  said  Harry, 
who  was  standing  in  the  door ;  "  and  it  isn't 
raining  now.  You  used  to  have  a  ladder  here, 
Aunt  Matilda.  If  you'll  tell  me  where  it  is,  I 
can  mend  that  hole  over  your  bed  without  get- 
ting on  the  roof  at  all." 

"  Jist  you  keep  away  from  de  roof,"  said  the 
old  woman.  "  Ef  you  go  hammerin'  on  dat  ole 


288      WHAT   MIGHT  HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

roof  you'll  have  it  all  down  on  me  head.  I  don't 
want  no  mendin'  dis  time  o'  day." 

Finding  that  Aunt  Matilda  was  so  much  op- 
posed to  any  carpenter-work  on  her  premises  at 
that  time,  Harry  went  home,  while  Kate  remain- 
ed to  get  the  old  woman  some  breakfast. 

Aunt  Matilda  felt  better  that  afternoon,  and 
she  sat  up  and  ate  her  supper  with  Uncle  Brad- 
dock  (who  happened  to  be  there)  ;  but  as  she 
was  evidently  feeling  the  effects  of  her  great  age, 
an  arrangement  was  made,  by  which  Aunt  Judy 
gave  up  her  cabin  and  came  to  live  with  Aunt 
Matilda  and  take  care  of  her. 

One  morning,  about  a  week  after  the  rainy 
Saturday,  Mrs.  Loudon  came  over  to  see  Aunt 
Matilda.  She  found  the  old  woman  lying  on 
the  bed,  and  evidently  worried  about  some- 
thing. 

"  You  see,  Miss  Mary,"  said  Aunt  Matilda, 
"  Ise  kind  o'  disturbed  in  me  min'.  I  rit  a  letter 
a  long  time  ago,  and  Ole  Miles  ain't  fetched  me 
no  answer  yit,  and  it  sorter  worries  me." 

"  I  didn't  know  you  could  write,"  said  Mrs. 
Loudon,  somewhat  surprised. 

"  Neither  I  kin,"    said  Aunt    Matilda.     "  I 


TIME  TO   STOP.  289 

jist  got  dat  Greg'ry  Montague  to  write  it  fur 
me,  and  dear  knows  what  he  put  in  it." 

"  Who  was  your  letter  to,  Aunt  Matilda  ?  " 
asked  Mrs.  Loudon. 

"  I  do'  know  his  name,  but  he  works  de  tele- 
grum  at  Hetertown.  An'  I  do'  min'  tellin'  you 
'bout  it,  Miss  Mary,  ef  you  do'  worry  dem 
chillen.  De  letter  was  'bout  my  money  in  de 
telegrum  comp'ny.  Dat  was  reel  silber  money, 
an'  I  hain't  heerd  nor  seed  nothin'  of  it  sence." 

When  Mrs.  Loudon  went  home  she  told 
Harry  and  Kate  of  Aunt  Matilda's  troubles. 

Neither  of  them  said  anything  at  the  time, 
but  Harry  put  on  his  hat  and  went  up  to  the 
store,  while  Kate  sat  down  to  her  sewing. 

After  a  while,  she  said  : 

"  I  think,  mother,  it's  pretty  hard  in  Aunt 
Matilda,  after  all  we've  done  for  her,  to  think  of 
nothing  but  that  ten  cents  she  put  into  the  stock 
of  the  company." 

"  It  is  perfectly  natural,"  said  Mrs.  Loudon. 
"  That  ten  Cents  was  her  own  private  property, 
and  no  matter  how  small  a  private  property  may 
be,  it  is  of  greater  interest  to  the  owner  than 
any  other  property  in  the  world.  To  be  sure, 
13 


290      WHAT   MIGHT   HAVE   BEEN   EXPECTED. 

the  money  that  was  paid  for  the  telegraph  line 
is  for  Aunt  Matilda's  benefit,  but  you  and  Harry 
have  the  management  and  the  spending  of  it. 
But  that  ten  cents  was  all  her  own,  and  she 
could  spend  it  just  as  she  chose." 

The  next  day  Kate  went  over  to  Aunt  Matil- 
da with  two  silver  ten-cent  pieces  that  Harry 
had  got  from  Mr.  Darby. 

"Aunt  Matilda,"  said,  she,  "this  is  not  the 
very  same  ten-cent  piece  you  put  into  the  com- 
pany, but  it's  just  as  good  ;  and  Harry  thinks 
that  you  about  doubled  your  money,  and  so 
here's  another  one." 

The  old  woman,  who  was  sitting  alone  by 
the  fire  wrapped  up  in  a  shawl,  took  the  money, 
and  putting  it  in  the  hollow  of  her  bony  hand, 
gazed  at  it  with  delight. 

Then  she  looked  up  at  Kate. 

"You  is  good  chillen,"  she  said.  "You  is 
mighty  good  chillen.  I  don't  'spect  I'll  lib  much 
longer  in  dis  hyar  world.  Ise  so  precious  old 
dat  it's  'bout  time  to  stop.  But  I  don't  'spects 
I'll  find  nobody  in  heben  that'll  be  more  reel 
comfort  to  me  dan  you  chillen." 

"  Oh,  Aunt  Matilda  !  "  cried  Kate.     "  Why, 


TIME   TO  STOP.  291 

you'll  meet  all  your  friends  and  relations  that 
you  talk  so  much  about  and  who  died  so  long 
ago." 

"  Well,"  said  Aunt  Matilda,  very  deliberately, 
"  perhaps  I  shall,  and  perhaps  I  sha'n't ;  dere's 
no  tellin'.  But  dere  ain't  no  mistakin'  'bout 
you  chillen." 

That  afternoon,  when  Uncle  Braddock  called, 
Aunt  Matilda  said  to  him  : 

"  Ef  you  see  Ole  Miles  ye  kin  tell  him  he 
needn't  bring  me  no  answer  to  dat  letter." 

Quite  early  one  morning,  a  few  days  after  this, 
Kate  went  over  to  Aunt  Matilda's  cabin. 

She  saw  Aunt  Judy  standing  at  the  door. 

"  How's  Aunt  Matilda  ?  "  asked  Kate. 

"  Gone  to  glory,"  said  Aunt  Judy. 

Aunt  Matilda  was  buried  under  a  birch-tree 
near  the  church  that  she  used  to  attend  when 
able  to  walk. 

That  portion  of  her  "  fund  "  which  remained 
unexpended  at  the  time  of  her  death  was  used 
to  pay  her  funeral  expenses  and  to  erect  a  suit- 
able tombstone  over  her  grave.  On  the  stone 
was  an  inscription.  Harry  composed,  it,  and 
Kate  copied  it  carefully  for  the  stonecutter. 


WHAT  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN   EXPECTED. 

And  thus,  after  much  hard  labor  and  anxious 
thought,  after  many  disappointments  and  a  great 
deal  of  discouragement,  Harry  and  Kate  per- 
formed to  the  end  the  generous  task  they  had 
set  themselves,  which  was  just  what  might  have 
been  expected  of  such  a  boy  and  such  a  girl. 


THE  END. 


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